SUFFOLK police officers are bucking the national trend and staying with the force, The Evening Star can reveal today.Figures released earlier this week suggested the numbers of officers resigning nationally was on the up with 2,700 officers quitting their post last year - about 1.

SUFFOLK police officers are bucking the national trend and staying with the force, The Evening Star can reveal today.

Figures released earlier this week suggested the numbers of officers resigning nationally was on the up with 2,700 officers quitting their post last year - about 1.9 per cent of the 40,000 officers working across the country.

However, in Suffolk, only 12 officers (less than 0.01pc) left the Constabulary - a reduction on the years 2005/06 and 2004/05. Four of those who made to resign for disciplinary reasons.

Despite this Jim Keeble, chairman of Suffolk Police Federation, said he did not believe officers in Suffolk were any more content with their jobs than their colleagues nationally.

He said: “I don't think people are staying because they are any happier than anywhere else but I generally think Suffolk is a good police force to work for.

“It is a very friendly atmosphere but the pressures on officers are no different here than they are in Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

“People generally feel under a lot of pressure in a lot of places because there are not enough people to deal with the workload.”

In 2005/06, 15 officers left Suffolk and in the previous year the figure was 26.

This compares with the national picture which last year saw 363 officers leave the Metropolitan Police, 330 leave the Police Service of Northern Ireland, 209 quit Greater Manchester and 130 leave the West Midlands, although these are all bigger forces.

Mr Keeble said the high figures nationally, particularly in the Met, could be attributed to recruitment drives three or four years ago.

He said evidence suggests people now have seven or eight careers in their lifetime and some may have served a few years before moving on.

He said there was disaffection nationally because the government had not increased grants given to police forces and officers' workloads had increased.

Have you resigned from the force in the last couple of years? Let us know why. Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.