Half of Essex Police's officers have less than five years' experience

Addressing members of the public at Colchester’s’ Old Library on Tuesday evening, Roger Hirst reiterated the promise when he explained the force now receives £100 million more funding every year than it did five years ago.

The recruitment drive, however, has meant that although the force has significantly increased the number of its number of officers, thousands are unable to be deployed independently due to having fewer than five years’ experience.

In charge - Roger Hirst said the homicide rate in Essex is now below the national average, having fallen from a level he described as being 'incontinently high' (Image: File photo)

Mr Hirst told residents who were at the meeting that Essex Police has 905 more police officers than the 2,850 it had in 2019.

But of the 3,755 officers now in the force, 2,000 are beneath the five-year experience threshold.

He added: “Five years ago, we had 200 officers in training. Now, 600 officers are in training.

“What that means is a lot are not available for independent work.”

Mr Hirst continued by saying Essex is not “anywhere near where it needs to be” when it came to the county’s homicide rate, and although he did not go into specific figures, he said the figure is now below the national average which, according to the ONS, is 11.7 per million people.

As for violence specific to Colchester, members of the public voiced concerns about levels of anti-social behaviour in the Dutch Quarter, with one member of the public saying it was “ridiculous” due to poor lighting and limited CCTV coverage.

She said: “We have a huge problem with anti-social behaviour, though I want to say thank you because every time I phone the police, they have been terrific.”

She continued: “I was trying to leave my house to get to this meeting, but there were ten teenagers in balaclavas knocking on doors and screaming down entry phones.

Hotspot - attendees of a meeting on Tuesday night said they witnessed some of the anti-social behaviour taking place in the Dutch Quarter whilst they made their way to the meeting (Image: Google Street View)

“We have CCTV, but it only runs so far. The lighting is extremely poor, so the anti-social behaviour at night is ridiculous.

“We have people dealing drugs on our doorstep. The anti-social behaviour isn’t going away, in fact it’s getting worse.”

Colchester's district commander, Chief Insp Colin Cox, said he will approach Essex County Council to see if lighting in the area could be extended past the 1am cut-off.