HOME Secretary David Blunkett is to visit North Yorkshire next week to meet Chief Constable David Kenworthy.
The county's efforts to recruit extra police officers are expected to be high on the agenda at Thursday's meeting.
A Parliamentary answer has revealed the number is expected to increase steeply over the next few months.
The latest figures show the force had 1,338 officers in September - an increase of 83 on the total for March this year.
This is expected to rise further to 1,429 officers by March next year,
according to a written answer to York MP Hugh Bayley and Scarborough and Whitby MP Lawrie Quinn.
The predicted increase would finally take the total past the figure for 1997, when Labour came to power.
The benchmark has been a political battleground between Labour and Conservative MPs in recent years.
Mr Bayley said: "The number of police officers in the county stood at 1,338 when the Conservatives came to power in 1979 and it was exactly the same when they left office in 1997.
"Labour is putting the resources into providing more officers and extra support staff to enable the police to get back out on to our streets in our communities."
Mr Bayley is to meet the Chief Constable and the chairwoman of North Yorkshire Police Authority, Jane Kenyon, on the day after Mr Blunkett's visit to discuss a range of policing issues.
Updated: 10:34 Friday, October 26, 2001
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