Staffordshire Police has failed to meet its special constable recruitment target – despite taking on more than 50 neighbourhood officers.

The force announced last autumn it was planning to recruit 53 officers and 15 specials by March, as part of the government's neighbourhood policing guarantee.

While the officer recruitment target has been met, and the force is looking at taking on another 26 this year, it has struggled to attract enough new special constables.

And a number of existing specials have had to be released from service due to 'not meeting the required level of commitment'.

Staffordshire Commissioner Ben Adams told members of the police, fire and crime panel the force is still aiming to take on more specials, but faced a challenge in finding people willing to make the necessary commitment.

Special constables are unpaid volunteers but wield the same powers as regular police officers.

They are required to volunteer a minimum of 16 hours a month.

Mr Adams said: "The force are very keen to build up their cohort. I think their ambition is to go way beyond that target and bring even more in. It's a bit like the situation with on-call firefighters – we're just finding modern life is ever more challenging for people that want to contribute like this.

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"Juggling a job, other commitments with what is now quite a significant commitment as special constable.

"We have lost some specials where they were making every commitment they could, but it wasn't necessarily what was required by the local police team. So getting that balance right is tricky."

The government is planning to put an additional 13,000 officers, PCSOs and specials into communities by 2029 under its neighbourhood policing guarantee.

Mr Adams believes that while special constables play an important role, they cannot make up for a shortage of paid officers.

He added: "Special constables do one hell of a job. They don't get paid, but they have full warranted powers, and sometimes they're exposed to very difficult circumstances. We appreciate every single one of them that commits to Staffordshire Police.

"But 3,000 or 4,000 volunteers isn't a way to plug a gap in policing numbers nationally. It isn't what we need. We need proper, funded officers."

Mr Adams also noted that the new neighbourhood officers will not be fully funded by government, meaning some will have to be moved from other roles. He described this as 'ludicrous' and called on the government to 'stop doing policing from the centre', allowing forces to decide where officers are deployed.

In response to a written question from a member of the public, Mr Adams said the deployment locations of the new officers is an 'operational matter' and subject to change.

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Staffordshire Police has been approached for comment.