A PAIR of West Midlands Police officers joined the celebrations to mark the recruitment of extra police officers across England and Wales in Downing Street.
The Deputy Chief Constable, Scott Green headed to 10 Downing Street alongside PC Gareth Glass for a reception hosted by Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
The force says figures released in April showed that of the additional officers who joined the police through the Uplift recruitment programme, 1,376 extra recruits were at West Midlands Police and it took the officer headcount to more than 8,000, with more recruitment work under way.
PC Gareth Glass joined the force in March 2020 – early on the in the Uplift programme. He joined the police after working in retail management.
He’s currently working in the public protection unit, safeguarding domestic abuse victims and investigating crimes and hopes to become a detective in the coming months.
The 33-year-old said: “It was a massive honour to represent the force at Number 10. My career so far has been brilliant. It’s rewarding. It can be long hours and demanding, but when you get an outcome at the end you make a difference to people.”
The force says over the past three and a half years it has seen the number of recruits joining us from ethnic minority groups increase, with 18.8 per cent of new officers stating they are from a minority group, compared with 10.5 per cent of officers in the force in 2019.
Equally it has seen an increase in the number of women joining West Midlands Police, with 42.3 per cent of recruits in 2023 being female, compared with 32.1 per cent in 2019.
DCC Green said: “We want West Midlands Police to be an employer of choice and we are succeeding in that mission. We are a big local employer and have some great opportunities for local people to join us.
“New officers are supporting the delivery of our new local policing model.
“More officers are now dedicated to working locally in our communities across the West Midlands, which will help us to get better at solving local issues and preventing and solving crime.”
