Public Safety at Risk as Officers Juggle Second Jobs Amid Pay Crisis

Police officers taking on second jobs in record numbers has laid bare the crisis in pay and wellbeing, South Yorkshire Police Federation has warned.

In some forces the number working additional roles has quadrupled since 2019. Steve Kent, Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, warned of the serious risks it poses to both officers and the public.

“It’s ludicrous that any officer needs a second job. This has to be approved by professional standards and you have to notify the organisation, so I really wouldn’t want any officers to fall down the rabbit hole of doing extra work without it being authorised.

“It speaks volumes that officers need to do this because they don’t get enough pay in their basic package.”

He also warned that officers will end up burnt out from overwork.

“If they’re doing forty-plus hours a week as a police officer, then taking on a second job, what impact is that going to have on their family life, on their mental health, on their physical health, on being tired? Officers go out there, giving their lives, and potentially risking their own freedom if they make the wrong decision. They should be paid in recompense for doing that.”

The Police Federation of England and Wales has echoed these concerns, describing secondary employment as a “deeply worrying trend driven by a generation of pay settlements for police officers that have seen real-terms cuts of more than twenty per cent in the last fifteen years.” Brian Booth, acting deputy national chair, warned that a third of officers now say they struggle to cover basic bills and that “public safety is being pushed to breaking point”.