New survey lays bare the officer retention crisis in the police service

1 May 2025

Almost one in five West Midlands Police officers plan to leave the Force within the next two years, or as soon as they can, a new survey has revealed.

The findings give further strength to West Midlands Police Federation’s claims that an officer retention crisis is not only damaging policing but also putting the public at risk.

Jess Davies, acting deputy chair of the Federation branch, explained: “We are losing so many of our longer-serving officers that we are being left with an experience deficit.

“It’s almost like we cannot recruit quick enough to fill the gaps within the Force but, while we obviously welcome our newer officers, they can’t really make up for the experience we are losing.

“For the public, this means that the real likelihood when they call for police assistance is that the officer they see will be inexperienced. But, in a more general sense, it will also mean slower response times, fewer crimes being solved and more communities feeling unsafe.

“Losing experienced officers, particularly at the current rate, is a direct threat to public safety and, unless the Government acts, this crisis is only going to get worse, and we will see even more experienced officers quitting.

“A recent study from Sarah Charman at the University of Portsmouth shows that for the first time ever, voluntary resignations nationally have over taken officers retiring.

Investment

“We need the Government to commit to long-term, sustained investment in the police service and that does not just mean officer recruitment. We also need to see money ploughed into the infrastructure needed to support those officers and, critically, we need to see fair pay for police officers.

“We accept the purse strings are tight, but failure to find the money to address the current crisis in policing, will be a false economy. Further down the line, if the Government doesn’t act now, it is going to cost billions of pounds to try to replace the experience we have lost and who is going to support and mentor new recruits if there are few experienced officers to mentor them?”

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has just released the findings of its annual pay and morale survey, which canvasses the opinions of police officers at all 43 forces across England and Wales.

West Midlands Police Federation’s results revealed:

• 59 per cent of respondents felt their personal morale is currently ‘low’ or ‘very low’, the sixth highest of all forces

• 90 per cent felt that morale within the Force is currently ‘low’ or ‘very low’, slightly higher than the national statistic for low force morale, 88 per cent

• 19 per cent reported they intend to resign from the police service either ‘within the next two years’ or ‘as soon as [they] can’

• West Midlands respondents’ most frequently cited reasons for intending to leave were morale, how the police are treated by the Government, and the impact of the job on their mental health and wellbeing, 83, 72 and 72 per cent respectively

• Almost two thirds (63 per cent) said that they are ‘dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’ with their overall remuneration (including basic pay and allowances)

• 16 per cent reported ‘never’ or ‘almost never’ having enough money to cover all their essentials. Nationally, 15 per cent of respondents reported the same.

The survey findings also reveal officers’ views on their training and development, conditions within the Force, officer health, safety and wellbeing, while also showing they did not feel valued within policing (73 per cent) or respected by the Government (92 per cent).

Almost three quarters (73 per cent) of respondents from West Midlands Police said they would not recommend joining the Force to others.

“This is a pretty damning statistic,” says Jess, “Yet I am not surprised. Police officers are under huge pressure; they are trying their best to tackle ever-increasing and ever-evolving crime, they are increasingly assaulted while carrying out their job, they are under constant media scrutiny, they face trial by social media, and they have lost a fifth of their pay in real terms since 2010.

“Given all this, the majority of police officers are not going to recommend their family members, their friends or their friends’ families to sign up.”

Underpaid

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), which represents more than 145,000 rank-and-file police officers, is warning that a ‘broken’ police service of underpaid, overworked, and under threat people risks a public safety crisis — with the loss of experienced officers set to cost taxpayers nearly £10 billion in five years.

It says voluntary resignations from the police service have risen 142 per cent since 2018 and, if this trend continues, 10,000 officers will resign every year by 2027, forcing the Government to spend £9.9 billion on recruiting and training replacement officers just to stand still.

It has now launched a campaign called Copped Enough: What the Police Take Home is Criminal to expose the crisis in policing.

The campaign encourages the public to support police and their families by joining a ‘digital picket line’ at www.polfed.org/campaigns/copped-enough

Copped Enough also calls on the Government to take immediate action on three key issues: fair pay for police officers, including a truly independent pay review system; initiatives to stop the exodus of experienced officers and more protection for frontline officers with stronger sentences for those who assault the police and central funding for police treatment centres

Read the full West Midlands Police Pay and Morale Survey.