OFFICERS must have equality of opportunity when climbing the police career ladder, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Jim Lucas, federation secretary, (pictured) was speaking after it emerged while membership of the\u00a0College of Policing will remain free for all officers\u00a0– the College has said it will provide \u201cpremium membership\u201d at a price and which will enable officers to receive extra training.<\/p>\n
Mr Lucas said: \u201cIt seems that officers are being told that because they want to become more specialist in what they want to do, they have to pay for that pleasure. Surely that cannot be the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years we have had training for CID police officers, roads policing officers and so on and that standard of training has been high – it has served the test of time. But now it looks like that training is going to be part of the revenue stream – it\u2019s going to be used as a way of funding the college and that is at odds.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Mr Lucas said the federation is still waiting for extra information on how the system will work.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIs it a case where a CID officer on a murder investigation team is going to have to pay to keep their competency up in their role? We are all for progress but it has to be equitable. You shouldn\u2019t have to pay to forward your career and to serve the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
After meeting with Police Federation of England and Wales chairmen and secretaries from around the country earlier this month, Alex Marshall, chief executive of the College of Policing, said:\u00a0 “The College of Policing will subsidise membership fees for police forces in England and Wales for as long as it is possible to do so.<\/p>\n
“Our starting point is that we don\u2019t intend charging for membership over the first three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the next 12 months we will develop our offer on membership and gather information from members about the services they would like and are prepared to pay for.\u201d<\/p>\n