Senior leaders have to help tackle officer fatigue

24 May 2018

SENIOR leaders must do more to understand and mitigate the effects of police officer fatigue, Steve Taylor, Essex Police Federation Chairman has warned.

Steve was talking after the issue was discussed at the Police Federation of England and Wales Annual Conference this week.

He said: “We are quickly approaching, if we haven’t already come to, a point in which it’s no longer acceptable for an officer not to have that break, for an officer not to have 5 minutes to themselves in a very, very busy, sometimes 12-hour day.

“And doctor after professor after degree entrant are telling us that fatigue is something that we ignore at our peril. Our senior leaders in the organisation need to start reflecting on that.

“When, as we are in Essex, we’re considering shift patterns, we’re considering supervision levels, we’re considering the wider resources because we have a small increase in our overall numbers, they all play a part and the fatigue of the officer, if you’re serious about health and wellbeing, you need to be serious about fatigue. To date we haven’t been.”

Police officer fatigue is an issue too important to be ignored and should never be dismissed as being ‘just part of the job’, the Conference in Birmingham heard.

Steve added: “We’ve always considered ourselves to be ahead of the curve in terms of health and wellbeing in Essex. We have a Live Well, Feel Well campaign that receives external support. We’ve slashed our referral times from 12 weeks to 4 days for occupational health, and we have access to more mental health professionals. But it’s still not perfect.

“There’s so much more we could do. The federation can play its part in that, but we need a nice, firm steer from the organisation.”