South Yorkshire Federation Warns of Dangerous Skill Gap as Experienced Officers Leave

Police forces are facing a “massive vacuum of skills” due to experienced officers leaving the job, South Yorkshire Police Federation has warned.

Federation Chair Steve Kent said forces were “haemorrhaging officers” due to the increasing challenges they were facing being met with poor pay.

It followed a Home Affairs Select Committee finding the service was being propped up by inexperienced new recruits.

The committee called for a long-term but urgent strategy to retain experienced officers, warning that relying on recruitment alone was not enough.

Steve said: “I don’t want to disillusion our young officers, because the majority of them are really hardworking, really keen and very, very welcome.

“But when you are haemorrhaging officers and you are replacing them with officers with six to 12 months’ service, you’re going to have a massive vacuum of skills – and it is felt.

“It’s felt and seen, sadly, in our discipline world, where we feel like officers are sometimes falling foul because they are sometimes cutting corners through lack of experience rather than intent.”

Steve said losing experienced heads meant more rash decisions were being made and less role models were available for new recruits.

He added: “People are under significant pressure and it’s an inevitability on our production and quality of our service that we provide.

“That’s not to say these new officers won’t make great police officers, because the majority of them will and I want to make sure I emphasise that.

“But it’s not fair to them to chuck them in at the deep end without many people to support them either.”