HAVING the power to make police officers redundant would \u201cinterfere with the independent Office of Constable\u201d, the Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation has warned.<\/p>\n
Police chiefs \u201care considering whether they reluctantly ask the Home Secretary to introduce compulsory redundancy as an option to manage significant further cuts to the service\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Neil Bowles said the power would see police officers \u201clooking over their back and not doing their job properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
He feared that police officers could be \u201cinfluenced about how to use their powers\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t have a state where if someone turns around to an Inspector and say, \u2018No I\u2019m not going to arrest that person, I haven\u2019t got the power to do so\u2019, for that to be looked badly on that officer,\u201d said Mr Bowles.<\/p>\n
It is understood that at the Chief Constables’ Council meeting on 27 and 28 October, the option of making police officers redundant is to be discussed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take on oath, or an attestation that we will police without fear or favour,\u201d said Mr Bowles. \u201cThe introduction of possible redundancies would interfere with that, I believe. I\u2019m also quite hopeful that most Chiefs will realise that they don\u2019t need it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Bowles said that he does not believe David Crompton, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, is now in favour of using the power.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would not want to make people redundant if they weren\u2019t going to get their full redundancy \u2013 especially with the idea of public sector ‘exit caps’ being discussed by the Government,” said Mr Bowles. “We are considering voluntary redundancy, but I still can\u2019t see that coming into our force at the moment because we\u2019ve got hundreds of officers coming up for normal retirement between now and 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s also a high percentage of officers that have given up the ghost and decided that they don\u2019t want to be a cop anymore and leaving without their full pension entitlement. In fact we\u2019ve had 50\u00a0this year\u2026 we\u2019re actually having to recruit people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Bowles concluded that if police officers are to be made redundant, the Federation would push for full industrial rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to be treated like an employee then we should have all employee rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n