OFFICERS are feeling under more pressure than ever as they face a busy festive season, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
Federation Chair Steve Kent said: \u201cI\u2019ve never known officers to feel as low as they do now, in terms of the overwhelming feeling of pressure. We\u2019ve come off the back of a summer surge, which meant loads of officers working lots of days off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had officers up in Scotland at COP26 working long hours, but we also had a lot of officers with their rest days cancelled back in force. It\u2019s absolutely taken a toll on them, so now we\u2019re coming to the winter period and it doesn\u2019t seem to be much of a let up in terms of the demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said the new intake of police officers was to be welcomed, but that \u201cit\u2019s going to take a lot of time for them to bed in\u201d.<\/p>\n
The performance culture driven by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) was partly to blame, Steve said.<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cI think we as a Federation need to have conversations nationally, not just locally, about the culture within policing and the relentless performance drive that is driven by HMIC \u2013\u00a0we need to see that foot taken off the gas a little, because our officers, sadly, are starting to break, in great numbers. We need to see something drastic done about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a pressure cooker. We need to focus on the quality of our work, rather than just the quantity.\u201d<\/p>\n