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Lauren Poultney says it’s her aspiration for 2022 to see her new recruits get stuck in at a neighbourhood level to tackle community crime – and assures the changes will be “obvious” by mid-year.

South Yorkshire Police is in the process of bringing 1,444 officers on board by March 2023, made up of a local recruitment drive and the 479 new officers allocated to it by the National Police Uplift Programme.

South Yorkshire Police in recruitment drive for new detectives

South Yorkshire Police's Chief Constable Lauren Poultney has delivered a Christmas message to readers of The Star

It comes after the force saw its workforce slashed by a third by the successive coalition and Conservative governments, from 5,583 staff in 2010 down to 3,605 in 2020.

Now, Ms Poultney says the uptick in recruits will see major benefits by mid-2022 when the newcomers earn their wings.

Lauren told The Star: “We are recruiting a significant number of officers and are getting new officers started every five or six weeks.

"It does take some time for them to be fully operationally competent – but I think the community will really start to feel the benefit of that later on this year.

CC Lauren Poultney told The Star South Yorkshire will "really see the benefit" of a police recruitment drive in the next six months.

"When an officer joins they first go through training school and then they go out on the job with a tutor to learn – together, it’s been described to me as two officers doing the work of one in half the time.

"It’s important to say that it takes time, because we recruited 150 last year and people might say ‘well, where are they?’ It’s not an immediate benefit. But I think the benefit will be obvious.”

Ms Poultney, who stepped into the role in June last year, says it’s also her goal for 2022 to see inclusivity grow at South Yorkshire Police.

Currently, the force is made up 36.1 per cent female officers. In the past twelve months, 43.5 per cent of new recruits have been female.

And at present, 3.6 per cent of officers come from a visible ethnic minority background. This figure has risen to 4.8 per cent amongst recruits in the past year.

It comes after the force began a specific recruitment drive this month for detectives after asking degree holders to apply for roles.

South Yorkshire will 'really see the benefits' of police recruitment drive in six months time, says chief constable