Policing Needs To Be ‘Front And Centre’ For Politicians

Policing needs to be “front and centre” of politicians’ manifestos, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said in the run-up to the General Election.

Federation Chair Steve Kent said policing had been neglected for years, and police pay and resourcing were key issues.

He said: “Policing has to be at the front and centre of politicians’ plans. Policing has been neglected now for over a decade. Despite the uplift in officers, in South Yorkshire we’re still 300 officers down on our peak, which has a massive effect on the workloads and how busy our officers are.

“We also know, from my own and others’ research, that we’re some of the poorest-paid police officers on average in the Western world, so we need to remunerate our officers properly and we need to put investment back into policing.”

Steve added that pressure on officers was leading to a rise in mental health problems, which must be addressed.

He said: “Police forces are getting flack for mistakes made and targets missed, and that’s because we simply don’t have anywhere near enough officers to do the job that the public would expect.

“And we need to look at officers’ mental health, because we are seeing more and more people coming to our counsellors and the Group Insurance Scheme counsellors. That is a growing problem. We need to prioritise the physical and mental health of police officers.”