South Yorkshire Police officers “run ragged” as demand returns to “beyond normal”

POLICING demand has returned to normal after Covid-19 lockdown with officers being “run ragged” and pulled from “pillar to post”, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Officers are facing business as usual, on top of new demands, such as enforcing the wearing of face masks and post-travel quarantine rules.

Steve Kent, Federation Chairman, said: “Demand is back to normal – or even beyond normal. We’ve got summertime demand, we’re seeing quite a lot of high profile public order matters happening in Sheffield especially and across the force, and officers are generally being pulled from pillar to post.

“With face masks, our force have said they will not deploy officers unless it’s an absolute last resort, but you’ve still got the calls coming in which is tying up our comms staff, which is having a knock-on effect to every other department in the force. So it’s challenging at the minute. Officers are getting run ragged. It’s challenging times.”

Steve said he has been reassured by the force’s stance on face mask enforcement, as “we just haven’t got the resources to do it when we’re creaking at the seams.” The force is also looking into the police’s role in quarantine enforcement, although Steve said a “pragmatic approach is being taken”.

He added: “The force are absolutely firmly focusing on the core police functions that we’ve got and not allowing us to get distracted by that. It’s just the expectation from the public, as if we’re going to be knocking on people’s doors. I just don’t know where that’s come from.”

Officers who are expected to quarantine as they come back from holidays in Spain in the coming days are being allowed to work from home, although officers who choose to go on holiday after the rules changed may not be on such firm ground as they are going against Government travel advice. Officers are being advised to stay in touch with the force and their holiday insurers before they fly.