The available information is given in the table. Community support officers were introduced as part of the Police Reform Act 2002 so data are only available from 2003 onwards.
Police force March 2003 March 2004 March 2005 September 2005 Avon and Somerset 0 45 139 146 Bedfordshire 0 12 37 43 Cambridgeshire 6 57 87 92 Cheshire 2 50 81 77 Cleveland 37 77 98 86 Cumbria 0 0 17 19 Derbyshire 0 0 43 43 Devon and Cornwall 19 51 74 75 Dorset 6 8 47 56 Durham 10 28 69 72 Essex 10 86 179 193 Gloucestershire 0 54 72 62 Greater Manchester 160 173 269 264 Hampshire 0 0 26 23 Hertfordshire 14 46 98 135 Humberside 0 0 20 20 Kent 0 59 105 103 Lancashire 77 110 161 159 Leicestershire 28 41 103 119 Lincolnshire 29 38 75 78 London, City of 0 0 14 14 Merseyside 40 72 170 161 Metropolitan 513 1,463 2,144 2,053 Norfolk 12 33 68 67 Northamptonshire 12 10 39 38 Northumbria 0 51 130 143 North Yorkshire 0 52 75 69 Nottinghamshire 10 56 113 112 South Yorkshire 14 59 125 125 Staffordshire 0 7 63 62 Suffolk 0 15 34 33 Surrey 21 56 115 102 Sussex 22 83 228 231 Thames Valley 0 7 98 109 Warwickshire 11 25 56 56 West Mercia 8 57 81 86 West Midlands 0 39 219 247 West Yorkshire 70 265 394 433 Wiltshire 15 23 41 38 Dyfed Powys 0 5 25 24 Gwent 30 45 77 81 North Wales 0 0 46 61 South Wales 0 59 107 116 Total 43 forces 1,176 3,418 6,261 6,324 1 Full-time equivalent includes those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. Note: This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items.
There are an estimated 67,556 individuals who have a DNA profile on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) taken by Avon and Somerset constabulary, of which 1,994 are currently under 16 years of age and 65,562 are 16 years or over (as at 30 May 2006). Information held on the NDNAD is available on a police force area basis only and although the DNA sample in these cases was taken by Avon and Somerset constabulary, the individuals to whom the sample relates will not necessarily be resident in Avon and Somerset.
Data on whether these individuals have been convicted or acquitted of a criminal offence are held on the police national computer (PNC) but not on the NDNAD.
PNC data are available for 60,521 individuals only, of which 1,490 are under 16 years of age and 59,031 are 16 years or over. Of the 1,490 persons who are under 16, 1,243 have not been convicted of an offence and of the 59,031 persons who are 16 years or over, 15,824 have not been convicted of an offence. (It should be noted that for the purposes of these data, cautions are included as non convictions.)
The difference of approximately 7,000 individuals between the NDNAD records and the PNC records is largely accounted for by the fact that, until recently, records for persons who were acquitted of an offence were removed from the PNC, but retained on the NDNAD. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of the ages of these 7,000 who were acquitted as the records are no longer available.