Tired Officers Facing A Challenging Summer

THE summer will be “a challenging period for officers”, who will be in greater demand while suffering from fatigue themselves, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Chair Steve Kent warned of a “perfect storm” for officers, who are already under pressure as the country eases out of lockdown.

He said: “Officers are anxious about the next three months because we’ve got a perfect storm with Euros, lockdown release, summer weather and protest season. This all adds up to a picture where officers are going to be knackered because they’ve not had any breaks themselves.”

Steve (pictured) was responding to comments by Andy Rhodes, Service Director of Oscar Kilo, who said it was vital that forces focused on the fatigue and recovery of officers following the pandemic. He explained: “This is a job that takes it out of you. With COVID, there’s been no respite and we need to come out of that.”

Steve agreed, saying: “It’s going to be a challenging period for our officers, who are really tired. They could do with a change of scenery and they’re not able to because of where we are.

“Officers have had their foot on the accelerator throughout this crisis without any sort of quality leave. We need to keep an eye on our officers and we also need to factor in that they’re going to need some leave.”

Andy also supported the sentiments of PFEW Chair John Apter, who wrote an emotional open letter in the Daily Express, addressing police officers and members of the public. John highlighted how difficult it had been to police the pandemic and how hard officers had worked. He also thanked “the silent majority” of the public who supported police officers.

Steve said: “It was a good letter, really well put and I echo everything that was said by John – it’s everything we’ve been saying throughout.”