There were 226,207 full-time staff members in the police service of England and Wales as of March 31, 2006; 143,271 of whom were full-time police officers. This represents a less than 1-percent increase in the number of police officers from the previous year. An additional 13,179 special constables provided voluntary police assistance to police agencies and communities throughout England and Wales. Of the 143,271 full-time police officers, 31,723 were female, which is 22 percent of all officers in England and Wales, up from 21 percent in March of 2005. There were also 5,297 minority ethnic police in England and Wales as of March 31, 2006, totaling only 3.7 percent of all officers in 2006, up from 3.5 percent in 2005. The Metropolitan Police has the largest proportion of minority ethnic officers (7.4 percent), followed by West Midlands (6.9 percent), Bedfordshire (5.8 percent), and the City of London (5.3 percent). In terms of police staff, which totaled 82,936 full-time employees as of March 31, 2006, 64 percent of all police staff members were female and 7 percent were ethnic minority members. In the year leading up to March 2006, 8,400 full-time officers were recruited by the 43 police forces and 8,773 full-time officers left the police forces. Tables, figures, notes