Officer exodus blamed on police pay and conditions attack
MORE than 5,000 police officers in England and Wales are planning to leave the service in the next two years, a Police Federation survey suggests.
Of the 32,000 officers who responded, 94 per cent said they believed morale in the service was low or very low. Some 59 per cent of police officers said their own personal morale was low. Jim Lucas, secretary of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said the potential exodus was due to the recent “attack on pay and conditions”.
In the survey, some 91 per cent said that they had felt some reduction to morale following changes to overtime and rest day payments. The survey found the pension age increase had led to 87.2 per cent of officers feeling like their morale had dropped.
Mr Lucas added: “Since the Winsor review of pay and conditions, it has been alarming how many officers have decided to leave the service. They are not leaving because they do not want to be police officers any more. It is because their terms and conditions have been attacked so much.
“People are retiring 15 years before they are due to. They do not feel valued. 5,000 police officers saying they want to leave – it is alarming. The office of constable is a role that has changed but not for the better.”
The online survey which took place earlier this year aimed to measure the impact of reforms which followed a review of police pay and conditions.
The Police Federation’s statement introducing the results said: “Our survey suggests 15% are planning to leave the service.
“Forces should not be complacent that they have enough officers to fill their current quotas, it’s likely that when the job market picks up these officers will go, leaving an experience gap.”
It is understood the full survey will be out in December.
More than 16 months have passed since the Home Office and ACPO were told to act on police officer morale by the Home Affairs Select Committee – which stated it had “sunk to its lowest ebb in recent memory”. Yet nothing has been done.