This comprises 16,200 police officers, 1,800 PCSOs and 16,100 police staff - a reduction of 14%.But nearly a third of this 34,100 cut has happened already - the workforce reduced by 11,200 between March 2010 and March 2011 as forces made cuts in preparation for the financial challenge ahead.
A report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, 'Adapting to Austerity', found authorities and forces have made a "good start" in developing plans for the next four years, but they need to transform their efficiency if they are to succeed in sustaining services while cutting costs.
HMIC inspected the 43 police authorities and forces in England and Wales to look at how prepared they were to make savings over the four years of the comprehensive spending review.
HMIC found that protecting the frontline will be very challenging over the next eighteen months as two thirds of the cuts to central government funding fall within the first two CSR years (2011/12 and 2012/13). Forces will have to transform their efficiency if they are to protect frontline services.
On average, authorities and forces are planning to cut their expenditure by 14% by 2014/15 compared with 2010/11 in real terms. However, the cuts vary significantly between forces: from 8% to 19%.
Forces have estimated how much they need to reduce their workforce to live within their means.
Estimated data at this stage from 42 police forces shows that they plan to cut frontline numbers by 2% between March 2010 and March 2012 with the rest of the workforce reducing by 11% over the same period.
This suggests forces are making efforts to protect frontline roles. Data available limits assessment beyond March 2012, but if the cut to frontline numbers is to remain modest, the non-frontline efficiency would have to be transformed.
Of the 38 forces that provided workforce data for March 2015, 22 forces would have to cut more than 30% of their non-frontline workforce in order to protect frontline numbers, and ten forces face a workforce cut that is greater than 50% of their non-frontline workforce.
Eight forces face a police officer cut that is greater than the number of non-frontline officers in their force and five forces fall into both these categories.
Her Majesty's inspector of constabulary, Roger Baker, said: "We found authorities and forces are planning relatively modest cuts to frontline numbers this year 2011/12) and they had all set an ambition to reduce crime. But whether they achieve and sustain this is yet to be seen. To sustain this, most forces will have to transform their efficiency. Those forces that start the CSR period as the most efficient and those forces that face the greatest cuts will find this the most difficult."
Denis O'Connor, HM chief inspector of constabulary, added: "Authorities and forces must share information with each other about what does and doesn't work to provide the best economies of scale. The police service must adapt to these changing times in order to deliver the best deal for taxpayers and they will need some support in this."
