AN increasing number of officers are planning to leave policing due to stress and poor pay, South Yorkshire Police Federation has warned.<\/p>\n
Statistics show that, nationally, a record number of officers are leaving the police service in favour of a career in the private sector. The knock-on effect is that a third of serving officers now have fewer than five years\u2019 experience.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent has said that officers are \u201cdealing with unbelievable stress for an absolute pittance\u201d and that police pay is down nearly 20% in real terms since 2000. The Government is said to be planning a pay offer of just 3.5%.<\/p>\n
Steve said that, while the Metropolitan Police and other forces in the south of England were probably feeling the pinch more, it was also a problem in his force.<\/p>\n
Steve said:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m having serious discussions with an increasing number of officers, who say: \u2018If we don\u2019t get a good pay deal, I\u2019m off\u2019. They\u2019re not just saying this into the wind. They\u2019re saying: \u2018I will go and explore this, and I will go and join this organisation\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what\u2019s concerning is that people are pre-emptively planning to leave policing, and I\u2019m having that conversation more and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if they start to do that, coupled with the real challenges we face with so many of our frontline officers having less than two years\u2019 service, we\u2019ve got a potential storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think the Government realises the catastrophic effects of this. If you\u2019re losing officers from both ends of the spectrum \u2013 people who are really experienced and people at the start of their career \u2013 you\u2019ve got a real challenge on your hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, with the current rhetoric that\u2019s going on, policing is not a place people want to be. Cops are fed up. Cops have had enough of being vilified for everything that they do and that they don\u2019t do. So we could find ourselves in a position where, in a year or two, policing could be seriously stretched.\u201d<\/p>\n