THE high number of police officers are fatigued and showing signs of PTSD is down to the \u201cdrip-drip effect\u201d of policing, according to South Yorkshire Police Federation.<\/p>\n
New figures from Oscar Kilo show 45% of officers are getting less than six hours of sleep a night \u2013 with 67% of officers and 50% of staff reporting PTSD symptoms.<\/p>\n
The only cure is getting policing back up to the levels it was before austerity and taking some of the pressure off over-worked officers, said Steve Kent, South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s a drip-drip effect, and this is what policing does. It can only be helped by getting our resources back up \u2013 we need national Government investment in policing welfare across the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat includes regular check-ups, even if it\u2019s quarterly, three times a year or bi-annual.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to be actual one-to-one check-ups with cops to see if they can spot the signs and stuff early on because we tend to only hear about cops that have already broken.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must stop getting to that point.<\/p>\n
\u201cStuff like lack of sleep and the constant drip-effect of stress, it\u2019s just going to cause a nasty bottleneck of all those kinds of issues.\u201d<\/p>\n