There are so many reforms that you could and probably should do before increasing the number of police hires, because it makes it easier to know when you have a sufficient number of police.
As with the smoking bill, it’s the Conservatives that introduced the sugar tax. The same party that encouraged NHS lionisation, that infantilised people during the pandemic, that justified soft authoritarianism on the grounds of public health.
There are so many reforms that you could and probably should do before increasing the number of police hires, because it makes it easier to know when you have a sufficient number of police.