More about this area

The force says...

Essex covers 1,420 square miles with a 400-mile coastline. The county comprises 75 percent agricultural land, but with a number of significant and spread out major urban conurbations, including Basildon, Thurrock and Southend. The population of Essex is 1.79m with 6.76 percent of residents of minority ethnic origin.

Stansted Airport (the UK’s fourth busiest) handled 25.9m passengers in 2017 while approximately a total of nearly 1.9m travellers passed through Southend Airport in 2017.

The London Gateway port is part of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure, and the port of Harwich provides passenger and freight links to Holland.

Essex Police has 1.68 officers per 1,000 head of population and in the year to March 2017 responded to almost a million calls, over a quarter of which were emergency calls.

Essex is a diverse county with significant variation in geography, infrastructure, accessibility, and socio-economic factors. These require a tailored policing response which increases the complexity of policing the county.

There is a high and increasing demand for police services due to both the volume of crime and incidents, and their severity. In 2016/17 crime increased by 8.7 percent (compared to an average 11.0 percent increase nationally) with the level of funding the force receives failing to match the disproportionate volume of complex, high harm crime. While the force is among the most efficient nationally with the lowest cost of policing to the taxpayer, limited funds increase the challenge of policing increasingly complex demands.

Essex Police has an ambitious transformation programme identifying opportunities to maximise limited resources and improve service quality. Examples include using mobile devices and technology, working with partners to support local communities and collaborating with other forces. Investing in the skills necessary to investigate modern crimes and, importantly safeguard individuals and communities in an increasingly digital world is a key challenge for the force and a key part of our transformation plan.

Disclaimer: the above statement has been prepared by Essex Police. The views and information in it are not necessarily those of HMICFRS.