No updates on Brexit leave or mutual aid plans
SOUTH Yorkshire Police is yet to issue any advice about leave or mutual aid operations over Brexit, and officers are getting anxious as the 29 March date grows near.
North Yorkshire Police has confirmed leave restrictions are in place for its officers in case of “additional policing demand” as Britain leaves the EU, but no such plans have been announced for South Yorkshire, Federation Chairman Steve Kent has said.
He said: “We as a force haven’t published any kind of big leave embargoes over that period, but I think officers realise that there’s going to be some disruption if it goes ahead in March and that’s going to have a potential effect on their leave and hours, and there is also an anxiety that there may be some public disorder.”
Mutual aid operations could be in force across the country, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland has started drawing up plans to call in reinforcements.
Steve said: “I understand that Kent are putting some things in place about mutual aid so they could end up having to spend time away from their families, going up and down the country. At the moment there’s a low level of anxiety but it is there, bubbling underneath the surface.”
He reassured members that the Federation will support their rights and entitlements, if they do find themselves working away from home.
He said: “If they are called upon to go across the country the Federation, nationally and locally, will be fighting so they get the correct benefits that they get for being out of force and the correct allowances so that they can be compensated.
“We think it’s unacceptable that, as has been suggested in the past, that officers go out of force and don’t get the overnight allowances, which I know caused a hell of a lot of anxiety and discord among officers last time it happened. So we’re ahead of the curve with that and nationally the police federation is looking at making sure there’s guarantees in place that if officers are moved over to the ports or wherever they need to be, they’ll be reimbursed for their troubles.”