North Yorkshire cops “want to feel valued”, meeting hears

FOUR out of five police officers in North Yorkshire have described themselves as having low morale.

Speaking at the Fed’s Open Meeting Mike Stubbs, secretary of North Yorkshire Joint Branch Board, (pictured) said the message from officers was that they “want to feel valued”.

And for the force to “stop treating them like children.”

A survey carried out by North Yorkshire Police Federation found that officer morale has fallen further since the last such study was undertaken in 1995.

Some 352 officers took part in the survey – more than one quarter of the Federation’s membership – and just 19% described their morale as ‘very high’ or ‘fairly high’.

The largest number of respondents (43.5%) said their morale was ‘not at all high’ while another 36% described having ‘not very high’ morale.

The number of officers who viewed policing as a vocation has also fallen in the last eighteen years.

In 1995, some 60.5% of respondents viewed policing as a vocation ‘to a great extent’. This figure has now fallen by more than 15%. Less than one third of officers said they were satisfied with the direction and guidance they receive from senior management and only around one quarter were happy with the support they received.

However, nearly 80% of those taking part in the survey were very or fairly satisfied with the direction, guidance and support they got from their immediate supervisors.

Mark Botham, Chairman of North Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “This survey shows the reality of the impact of cuts to policing in North Yorkshire. No longer can we ignore the consequences of cuts on the officers delivering the service to the public.

“We are looking forward to hearing details of the action the Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner are taking to address the concerns of our members expressed in this survey.”

Under half of officers said they had the IT computer equipment to allow them to carry out their job and just 15% felt they were given sufficient training in respect of new legislation.

One officer called for: “An acknowledgement from senior ranks that with falling numbers of frontline officers the burden and workload placed upon individuals is ever-increasing.”

Dave Jones, chief constable of North Yorkshire Police, told officers: “I don’t support compulsory severance for police officers.”

He added that he seea the police as “modern day heroes who are there to protect the public.”

There was a minute’s applause at the meeting to remember former Police Federation of England and Wales chairman Paul McKeever and fallen officers PC Andrew Bramma and PC Keith Pattison.