Officer reveals he would not join the Force if he had the same choice again

8 September 2023

A West Mercia Police Federation member who joined the Force four years ago after working in business management said he would not make the same decision today.

PC Mike Poultney spoke out after a new report revealed record numbers of officers were quitting their jobs.

Mike said he was passionate about becoming a police officer and serving as a Special before going full-time helped make up his mind.

Swapping the suit and the car dealership where he worked for a police station and uniform would mean almost halving his annual salary but after discussing it with his wife and working out the family finances, he decided the time was right to make the leap.

A new report has revealed record numbers of officers are quitting their jobs.

He said: “At that point, I joined earning £24,000 and had worked out that in seven years I would be back up to around £40,000 with anti-social hours included, so it was an achievable aim with our outgoings at the time especially.

“However this year has been the biggest struggle to date when it has come to finances, as, although I have had my incremental pay increases and we have received increases as a workforce from the Government, they have not bridged the gap of ever increasing costs in mortgage repayment, council tax, gas bill, electric bill, car insurance, fuel costs, food bills and every other outgoing we have.

“The seven per cent pay increase announced this summer is welcomed as extra money is always welcomed and appreciated but it does seem lacking in comparison to outgoing increases we are experiencing from all angles at present and as stated by the Police Federation previously we are still going to be 10 per cent behind the calculated 17 per cent comparison that was worked out.”

Mike, a response officer based in Worcester, said the police service would always be an inefficient spend for the Government but warned the consequences of reduced staffing and depleting morale due to pay and conditions should outweigh the cost.

He said: “We are a necessary spender of public money and when the public expectation and demand is ever increasing, the funds allocated to the police should also reflect this.

“With where we sit now in terms of pay scales and money, if was making the same decision I made four years ago to leave a well paid job to come and join as police officer, especially as now the student officers are under so much more pressure with university commitments also, I would not be able to make that leap and join and would not have come across as a I did.”

Mike said policing funding had to be sorted out as an urgent priority because the pay issues were preventing good people from joining the service and seeing many experienced officers resign from the Force.

“Our job is demanding, and the demand on officers - especially student officers - is increasing,” he said.

“We have reached a point where all of the new starters and student officers seem to be very young and live at home. Anyone with a family simply cannot afford to come across and do the job on the starting salaries anymore.

“I think policing is missing out on massive amounts of life experience and skill sets from people no longer coming into the service.

“I am now the second longest serving officer on shift in my team and I am four-and-a-half years in. And the longest serving is about to move on!”

Mike said he still held the job in high regard and was proud of the service delivered to communities and the help and support offered to vulnerable people.

But he added: “It becomes ever more difficult when experience and morale dwindle and the opinion of the Government is so clear: they want it all but don’t want to pay for it. We simply don’t seem worth it.”