2,000 officers quit the job last year - pay and conditions blamed

16 August 2018

Almost 2,000 police officers quit their jobs over the past year, blaming pay, morale and the impact it was having on their home lives.

A new survey from the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has revealed the number of officers leaving the service is going up every year.

More than half cite morale as the reason for them leaving, while 48% blamed the impact the job had had on their family.

Nearly 70% agreed that pay increases had not matched their standard of living, and that they would never consider coming back to the service.

England and Wales now has the lowest number of officers (122,404) it’s had since 1996.

PFEW Vice-Chair Che Donald said: “We clearly have a problem with the retention of police officers as the numbers leaving have risen for the fourth consecutive year.

“We have lost more than 21,300 officers since 2010 – that’s a drop of 15% and the numbers keep going down every year. It’s like Groundhog Day.”

“Our leavers’ survey shows that pay, morale and the effects of the job on officers’ mental and physical health are all factors in their decision to leave.

“The derisory so-called 2% pay rise from the Government recently is the equivalent of around £2.50 a week – and comes on top of years of austerity. In real terms police officer pay has now decreased by around 18% since 2009/10. All we are asking is that officers are paid fairly for the dangerous job they do.”

Mr Donald also said events such as the visit of President Trump had made it harder for police officers to spend time with their families.

“Our last Demand, Capacity and Welfare survey showed the extent that officers are being brought to their knees by the extreme workloads and the stresses and strains of the job,” he added.

“Resilience is at an all-time low with unprecedented cuts and officers being asked to do more with less resources, all of which is having a significant impact on both their mental health and physical wellbeing.

“Added to that recent figures also showed that officers were owed almost 250,000 rest days, so they are getting fatigued and no wonder they say they are not able to spend enough quality time with their children.

“Policing is also unique in that unlike the other emergency services, officers are liable to have their leave and rest days cancelled at extremely short notice to respond to operational demand, as happened recently in the Wiltshire poisonings, and President Trump’s visit when thousands of police were mobilised away from their forces and homes.”