Nottinghamshire Police welcomes double intake of officers as it continues to deal with Coronavirus crisis

This completes the force’s recruitment drive this year, putting them far ahead of other forces with plans to start the next round of recruitment from as early as next month.

The new recruits will be given some initial training and be able to shadow other officers within weeks – which will help the force as it deals with the current Coronavirus crisis.

Chief Constable Craig Guildford welcomed the new recruits as he addressed them at West Bridgford police station yesterday, Friday March 27.

He said: “The additional numbers will bolster my hard-working officers and staff who have continued to do a brilliant job despite the challenges we are currently facing.

“We are ahead of the national curve on recruitment of additional officers and it is great to be in this position, especially at this current time so that we can support our officers on the front line as they patrol the streets encouraging people to stay indoors to save lives.

“In order to support this critical piece of work we have changed some of our training so we can have this solid reserve of officers ready to be deployed where we need them. This will help us with the work we are doing to help stop the spread of Coronavirus.

“They will be given self-defence and first aid training and we’ll have them out with our patrols as quickly as we can. The recruitment team and training staff have done a great job in very challenging circumstances.”

Nottinghamshire Police last week revealed it is so far ahead with its plans that it will now recruit an extra 150 extra police officers over the next 12 months - on top of the 147 officers already secured this financial year.

The force has now recruited the full 107 police officers pledged as part of the national uplift and a further 40 delivered by the 2020-21 budget - many of whom have already completed their initial training and are bolstering the frontline.

Plans are now underway to recruit a further 150 officers by March 2021 - bringing the total number of additional officers to almost 300.

The force is continuing with its recruitment programme despite Coronavirus, as this could be a life-line to those who may have just been laid off from other careers due to the pandemic. The recruitment events are being done online rather than face-to-face.

The vast majority of new officers will be deployed in neighbourhood policing roles across Nottinghamshire and as part of the expansion of Operation Reacher, which is being rolled out to all parts of the city and county.

There will also be more dedicated beat officers as part of the growth in numbers.

The remainder will go into public protection, crime investigation, cybercrime and fraud plus additional knife crime and robbery team officers. They will help drive down crime and support victims.