Chair praises Essex Chief for speaking out on officer pay

21 March 2023

Hertfordshire Police Federation chair Luke Mitchell has backed the Chief Constable of neighbouring Essex Police who warned his officers would struggle to make ends meet without a fair pay rise this year.

BJ Harrington said some Essex officers were using a food bank run by colleagues at a police station in the county while others were taking second jobs or leaving the Force to find better paid employment elsewhere.

And he warned more than 20 years of real-terms pay cuts for officers could no longer be ignored.

“You can’t Taser the gas bill and you can’t handcuff the family food shop at Lidl. And you can’t arrest rising mortgage bills,” he said.

In a speech to new recruits, Mr Harrington said:  “Seeing 84 new officers take their oath to protect communities across Essex is an incredibly proud moment but there is no doubt it is becoming increasingly difficult to retain the best new talent.

“Police pay has fallen behind that of other sectors by 17 per cent since the year 2000 and this is too big a gap to simply ignore.

“I need the officers and staff across Essex to focus on helping people, keeping people safe and catching criminals, not on whether they can afford to stay in the job. You need to be able to afford to do your job.”

Mr Harrington’s comments follow similar interventions from Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

Luke, a longstanding critic of the Government’s pay and remuneration policy, said the Essex chief’s comments sent out a powerful message and urged others to follow his lead.

He said: “The more chief constables that go public with their position on pay the more chance we have of securing a pay deal that makes up for 20 years of cuts.

“We are calling for a 17 per cent pay rise this year and that figure covers the current cost of living crisis, takes into account the difficult jobs our members do and the sacrifices they make but it also redresses the balance after two decades of real-terms pay cuts.

“The chief constables know the score and should be more willing to let their concerns around police officer pay be known.

“If they are concerned about losing too many talented and dedicated officers because of poor pay then maybe it is time for them to take a stand.”

The Police Federation issued its 17 per cent pay claim after an independent study showed a landslide decline in police pay since 2000.

The research by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) revealed real terms police pay has fallen almost 20 per cent behind inflation between 2000 and 2022.