OFFICERS are busier than ever in a \u201cperfect storm\u201d of demand, but South Yorkshire Police Federation has managed to prevent many officers\u2019 leave being cancelled.<\/p>\n
Chair Steve Kent said: \u201cCops have never felt busier than they do now. They are absolutely shattered. There is a perfect storm of demand, where we\u2019ve got derbies in the football, the night-time economy, and obviously the pandemic. We don\u2019t have enough resources to deal with stuff as much as we would like to, so it means officers are having to work longer to just do the bare necessities, which is wearing them out.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he said the Federation had fought to protect officers\u2019 vital leave days, and that fewer of them had been cancelled than they had anticipated. But it had been a difficult balancing act, he added.<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cWhat we can do is try to protect officers\u2019 days off as much as possible and, thankfully, as a Federation we have managed to move away from the large-scale cancellation of leave. To be fair to the force, they are working with us on this to try to make sure the impact is minimised as much as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019re between a rock and a hard place, because on the one hand we\u2019re trying to prevent officers not having their days off cancelled and not working all hours, but on the other we\u2019ve then got fewer officers on the frontline who can do the back-up for their colleagues. So we\u2019re just desperately trying to find that balancing act.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the force responded to Steve\u2019s concerns, saying they recognised the pressures that officers were under. Speaking to the Sheffield Star<\/em>, Chief Inspector Lydia Lynskey said: \u201cWe recognise the challenges our officers have faced throughout this pandemic and we are immensely proud of how hard they have worked in such unprecedented circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n In an attempt to give tired officers some respite, the Federation has been going from station to station in South Yorkshire doing roadshows and offering support. Steve said: \u201cWe went out to Doncaster last Friday and handed out 120 bacon butties \u2013 it was a really positive day. We\u2019re committed to doing that across the force for the next couple of months to give something back.\u201d<\/p>\n But Steve said he realised that the pressure on officers was an ongoing issue and that he had made it clear to the force that it needed to stop enforced overtime in September. He said: \u201cThey need to take the pressure off officers, because they are absolutely knackered.\u201d<\/p>\n