Officers Taking On Second Jobs To Make Ends Meet

18 June 2025

If police officers were paid fairly they wouldn’t have to take on second jobs and risk burning out, the Chair of Cleveland Police Federation has said.

Paul Crowley was speaking after a report in the Mail on Sunday found that one in seven police officers and staff (33,000 people) have a second job outside policing. In some forces, the number of officers and staff members with a second job has quadrupled since 2019.

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) called it a “deeply worrying trend”, pointing out that police pay has fallen by a fifth since 2010 and that officers were struggling to make ends meet.

As part of PFEW’s ‘Copped Enough’ campaign, an Early Day Motion has been tabled in Parliament calling for a full review of the police pay review process and the introduction of a system of collective bargaining and binding arbitration.

Paul said: “There’s a reason why police officers are having to take on second jobs, and it isn’t for fun. Quite simply, it is because they haven’t got the money to make ends meet. Anyone who is struggling to buy the basic necessities at home would look at alternative means to earn money.

“Meanwhile the work/life balance in policing is almost non-existent. Even when it is written into regulations that officers should have 11 hours between shifts, it very rarely happens, and that’s simply because of demand versus resilience. If officers are forced to take on second jobs, they’re going to burn out, and we end up with communities that are struggling to be policed due to increased sickness.”

Paul said he hoped the Copped Enough campaign brought the message home to the Government. He said: “The Government can’t keep demanding more and offering less. If the Government was to pay police officers more, would they look at second employment? I would say they wouldn’t, and that would undoubtedly see a marked improvement for communities and officer welfare.”