THE introduction of performance-related pay into policing could be \u201cdangerous and divisive\u201d, South Yorkshire Police Federation has warned.<\/p>\n
Chief Constables have announced plans for performance-related pay for police officers based on their \u2018capability\u2019 and \u2018productivity\u2019. They are also considering moving from the current seven stages of PC pay as part of moves away from the traditions of omni-competent officers being paid for time served.<\/p>\n
Pay would now be based on four stages: Training, Foundation, Competent, Advanced.<\/p>\n
But Steve Kent, South Yorkshire Federation Chair, said: \u201cI\u2019m a bit concerned about performance-related pay in terms of measuring arrests, for example, or stop and search.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could be dangerous and could lead to a blas\u00e9 attitude to standards when officers are more concerned about the numbers they need to get on paper rather than the quality of what they\u2019re actually doing. So I\u2019d be very interested to see what that is, and I\u2019m a little bit cautious about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve called for chiefs to be careful in the way they set the parameters for performance-related pay.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cMy concern is if you have a situation where firearms officers are getting paid more than response officers, when response officers are potentially going to a higher rate of incidents, that could cause a divisive, ill feeling between those officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, a better way of doing it would be a return to the special priority payments that we had more than 10 years ago which reflected officers who had a frontline role, rather than officers who were more office based.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that would be a fairer way to do it because there\u2019s very few that would argue that officers on the frontline shouldn\u2019t be recognised for the fact that they\u2019re putting themselves in danger and putting themselves out there every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
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