Alarm is growing among police chiefs, who have a record number of rookies on their forces while experienced officers are quitting.
It is feared there are too few qualified officers to drive cars in chases, sex offenders are not being checked properly and investigations are led by inexperienced supervisors.
Home Office figures show that in the past seven years the total of officers with more than ten years' service has fallen from 83,987 to 71,274.
Since 2019, the number of experienced officers has been falling by 150 every month. Over the same period, the number of police with less than ten years of experience has risen from 44,007 to 77,178.
In 2019, experienced officers made up almost two-thirds of forces. Now those with ten years service are outnumbered by their more inexperienced colleagues.
