Police Officers 'Stretched Beyond Belief'

16 September 2025

Police officers are stretched beyond belief with officers of all ranks being worn down, the Government were told today.

Nick Smart, President of the Superintendents’ Association, highlighted to new Police Minister Sarah Jones that “we are still operating in austerity… we are bottom of the pile when it comes to funding - we are 12,000 police officers short.”

“This is not the service crying wolf,” added Nick at the Association's Annual Conference, as he told MPs: “Fund us, support us, listen to us, look after us.”

He highlighted that 17,752 officers were signed off work over the past year due to stress, depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.

And more needs to be done to protect them.

"Welfare budgets should be protected at all costs,” said Nick.

“Keeping staff fit and healthy - physically and mentally - should be a moral obligation. The police covenant is a pale imitation of the military covenant.

“We can’t stop the job our people are doing from being traumatic. They have willingly taken on a difficult, dangerous and risky role as a vocation, to help other people. But we can build solid infrastructures to support them so that when it gets too much – which it undoubtedly will – we have their back – we know how to help them – and we can support them back to full health.

“As police budgets are squeezed, welfare is one of the first things to be reduced when it should be protected at all costs.

“We are stretched beyond belief, we are wearing officers down of all ranks.”

Nick added: “We need a national conversation about responsibility. Police officers are not medical professionals. They are not social workers. Until this happens we will continue to be society's sticking plaster.

“Policing continues to sit at the bottom of the pile when it comes to Government funding, despite ongoing pressure to deliver widespread safety reform, with fewer and fewer resources.

“It is the first duty of Government to keep its citizens safe, yet we see little evidence of a commitment to doing this. Instead, ensuring public safety will be even more challenging, as the population grows and demand on police rises, whilst funding does not keep pace.”

Police Minister Sarah Jones told the Conference the Government recognised that police officers “make huge sacrifices”.

She added: “We want to make sure that you have the support you need and the standards that people expect."