The Covid-19 pandemic has badly impacted the Mumbai police force with around 1/5th of posts lying vacant as the recruitment process could not be held for the past two years. In fact, police recruitment has not been held since 2018. Most of these vacancies belong to the constabulary section, the backbone of policing in the city. Of the 46,212 sanctioned posts in the city, 8,747 were vacant till the end of 2021.

Mumbai city has a population of around 1.50 crore whereas the Mumbai police have 46,212 posts, of which around 75 to 80 per cent is the constabulary. Right from patrolling, administrative work to detection, constables play a very important role in city policing.