Rapporteurship: Recruitment and retention of Metropolitan police officers

This investigation aims to: 

• Analyse trends in Metropolitan police officer recruitment and retention.
• Identify the barriers affecting the Met’s ability to recruit and retain police officers, including any impact that Metropolitan police culture has on recruitment and retention.
• Assess police officer morale, wellbeing and confidence to exercise their duties, and the impact these factors have on officer retention.
• Explore how MOPAC monitors and supports police officer recruitment and retention.
• Consider how the Met and MOPAC could address police officer recruitment and retention challenges, including by considering how positive examples of current practice could be expanded. 
• Identify good practice from other police services nationally or internationally with strong recruitment and retention programmes to explore how this could inform London’s approach. 

• In 2019, the then Commissioner said that the Met needed at least 36,000 police officers, a position supported by the Mayor. This estimation has grown over time, based on increases in London’s population, as well as additional crime and reform demands placed on the Met. The 2025-26 Budget submission from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), stated that the Met’s assessment of its resource need was to grow to a workforce of 38,000 officers and 19,000 staff, based on a desired 2:1 ratio.

• The number of police officers in the Met steadily increased from 2019 to 2023 but has decreased over recent years. In October 2025, the Met’s police officer workforce was 31,884 full time equivalent (FTE) posts, 8 per cent lower than March 2023 (34,503 FTE).

• Overall police officer strength is impacted by both officer recruitment, the ability to bring new officers into the service, and officer retention, the ability to keep existing officers from leaving the service.

• As London’s Police and Crime Commissioner, the Mayor and MOPAC have responsibility for the strategic direction, budget, and oversight of the Met. The Mayor has reported that the Met has applied a variety of initiatives over the years to improve recruitment and retention.

Emma Best AM has launched a rapporteurship on behalf of the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee examining the recruitment and retention of Metropolitan Police officers. This Call for Evidence is open to all who would like to respond, with responses from organisations representing police officers or providing training and support to officers and staff in London, other police services or senior policing figures in the UK or internationally, academics specialising in police officer retention and recruitment, and other groups or organisations with experience in this area, being particularly welcome. 

Please send submissions in a Word document format (not PDF) by Monday 17 August 2026 to [email protected]

We are seeking the views of current and former Met police officers to understand the factors that affect retention of police officers in the Met. 
The findings of the survey will be used to inform the Rapporteur’s investigation. Responses may be used to form part of a report or output, so please do not include information you would not want to be published.