Recruitment hits record high

Scotland Yard recruitment has hit an all-time high and the force is now launching a campaign to attract more Londoners and people from the South-East.

The number of recruits at the Hendon training school has reached 1,000 for the first time. Now the Met is taking its recruitment campaign to "Bollywood" cinemas and Chinatown in an effort to persuade more people from the capital itself to join up.

The recruitment success is a dramatic-change from a year ago when there were more officers leaving the force each week than there were joining.

At the end of this financial year the force hopes to have taken on 2,500 officers compared with 1,350 in 2000/2001. Recruitment has been helped by the rise in pay for London officers to £26,000 and free rail travel within 70 miles of the capital.