Copped Enough: Government Needs To Recognise The Challenges Officers' Face

4 June 2025

The Government needs to “sit up and recognise the challenges police officers are facing” and pay them fairly, the Chair of Cleveland Police Federation has said.

Paul Crowley was speaking as the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) continues it campaign, ‘Copped Enough: What the Police Take Home is Criminal’.

The campaign encourages people to sign a petition to “join the digital picket line” and stand with the officers who can’t legally strike but who are standing up for their right to fair pay, safe conditions and respect.

Paul said: “This campaign is important because the Government needs to sit up and recognise the challenges police officers are facing, not just from a pay perspective but also in their conditions and workloads.

“In the recent PFEW Pay and Morale Survey, 55% of respondents from Cleveland Police reported that their personal morale is either low or very low. And, shockingly, 80% say that the force-wide morale is low or very low.

"That’s because officers’ workloads are through the roof – 72% said that their workload was either too high or much too high, which is well above the national average.

“The Government needs to see that officers don’t have the industrial rights that other professions have, and that they need fair and equitable pay for the conditions and workload they’re facing.”

The retention of officers was paramount, said Paul

“More and more often, police officers are looking into the private sector and other roles with a similar nature to policing, where they are treated fairly, they are less likely to be assaulted, and their pay reflects their responsibilities.”

Paul said it was “alarming” that in the Pay and Morale Survey, 70% of Cleveland officers felt they didn’t feel valued within the police, and 67% wouldn’t recommend joining the police to others.

He said: “There was a time when our pay did reflect the rate of inflation, and was compatible with real-world living costs, and police officers would recommend it as a career. But that’s not the case any more, and the Government needs to ask themselves why that is.

“If we can’t attract new talent and we can’t retain the experience we’ve got, where will that leave us in five or 10 years’ time? The time to act is now, to give a pay remuneration that is fair and that is capable of attracting the right people and retaining the best officers.”