OFFICERS\u00a0joining the service now will be dealing with very different crimes \u2013 some of which are completely new.<\/p>\n
Figures out this month suggested that forces across England and Wales have had 125,000 applications from people wanting to join the service in the past two years \u2013 that\u2019s eight-and-a-half applicants for every available post.\u00a0Currently in South Yorkshire, the force plans to recruit 36 officers every three months, until 2019.<\/p>\n
Zuleika Payne, Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: \u201cWhen you speak to the officers who have been with the organisation a significant period of time, they will often say, \u2018This is not the organisation I joined\u2019. And that\u2019s the sort of rhetoric that young officers when I joined 26 years ago would hear from the long serving officers back then.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo stemming from that is perhaps a school of thought that actually it is going to be difficult to get people into the profession because those already with the organisation have seen the changes, they\u2019ve lived through them and some feel that policing has deteriorated. However, for new entrants coming in to the organisation, they don\u2019t have a benchmark upon which to draw that comparison.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers joining now will be dealing with very different crimes. What we have to be mindful of is the new types of crime that officers are dealing with, for example cyber crime, issues around child sexual exploitation and grooming.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew bills such as the Domestic Abuse Bill and assaults on emergency workers, if passed, could see modification and changes to our way of working. As legislation changes and becomes more complex, so does our way of working.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers joining now will have access to IT that officers of my generation didn\u2019t see. And we are in a digital age which lends itself to a very different way of working.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will still need people with effective communication skills, certainly with the reintroduction of neighbourhood policing as well, because the whole ethos there is about building up those key community contacts and links, and gaining the trust and confidence of individuals. Much of that is down to your interaction, and not your IT skills.\u201d<\/p>\n