Custody is seen as a “punishment posting”

CUSTODY officers see their role as a “punishment posting” with nearly one in five wanting to be redeployed away from detention duties as soon as possible, it has been revealed.

And nearly three-quarters (73.1%) of officers not currently in a custody role say they would never want to do that job.

The figures were revealed in the Police Federation of England and Wales’ Pay and Morale survey, published last month.

It showed that six in 10 custody officers suffered from low levels of personal morale. A total of 62% of custody officers said that their workload had increased in the past 12 months and 11% of custody officers said they would leave the police within the next two years. Six in 10 custody officers reported their workload was too high, the survey showed, and the number of applications to join custody are dropping across the country.

And South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Zuleika Payne says more must be done to respect the different roles within policing.

She said: “It’s only right and proper that both in and out of policing we acknowledge and recognise that all roles carry unique responsibilities, and with those responsibilities come unique risks as well.

“The role of custody sergeant has immense risk and responsibility attached to it. Here in South Yorkshire we have seen the introduction of new custody suites, so we work very differently to the way we worked before.

“One has to undertsand, when you have state of the art buildings, state of the art custody suites, state of the art IT equipment in there, the officers working in there and the staff that support them, have immense responsibility.

“One has to acknowledge that whichever element of policing you’re working in, regardless of the rank, they all have their own unique responsibilities attached to them.”