Working To Secure The Best Protection For Hard Working Officers
It is ridiculous that there is a national shortage of PPE for police officers, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, but he added that things were improving in his force.
Steve Kent was speaking after PFEW Health and Safety Lead Mark Andrews pointed out that health and safety regulations mean that Chief Constables should ensure their officers have the best available kit, which includes the new 3rd generation body armour.
Steve said: “Our Federation Secretary, Dave Baines, is on the regional procurement route for uniform and kit, so we’re holding the force to account. We are proactively monitoring this and jump on it as soon as we hear anything.
“There’s a national issue when it comes to kit and we sometimes hear horror stories of new recruits who don’t have the right body armour. It’s not very common, but it does happen.
“And when it does we have to intervene and make sure those officers don’t go anywhere near the streets until they’ve got the proper kit. Thankfully that’s very, very rare and it seems to be getting sorted. So we’re on the ball with this.
“But we do know there’s a backdrop of the national shortage, so again that poses the question: what on earth is going on with the procurement process when we’re having forces all over the country who are sometimes struggling to get hold of coats, bulletproof vests, that kind of thing? It’s absolutely ridiculous.”