Women now make up one in three police officers in Norfolk after the force exceeded the government's target for additional recruits.

There were 1,946 officers employed by Norfolk Constabulary in March 2023, a 3pc increase from 1,888 the year before, Home Office figures show.

The changing gender balance in the county means more than a third are now female (34pc of the force).

It comes after Norfolk’s police and crime commissioner previously said the force must move away from a laddish culture to restore the public’s trust in the wake of the Sarah Everard murder.

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The figures show 269 additional officers were recruited through the government’s uplift programme – 20pc above the target of 224 new officers in the county.

Almost half of new Norfolk officers were women.

Nationally, a total of 20,951 extra recruits joined police forces in the past three years, in the wake of a Conservative election manifesto commitment to have 20,000 additional officers in post by March 2023.

However the Police Federation, which represents officers, said the uplift programme had "backfilled" the more than 21,000 officers cut in 2010.