SOUTH Yorkshire Police Federation wants getting more officers on the beat to be a top policing priority for the new Government.<\/p>\n
Whichever party holds the keys to Number 10 after the General Election needs to \u2018maintain an uplift\u2019 in recruitment and continue to invest in policing in the years to come, Federation Chair Steve Kent said.<\/p>\n
Measures need to be in place to defuse the potential \u2018time bomb\u2019 of officers\u2019 mental health welfare too.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire is due to recruit some 1,300 more officers over the next three to four years \u2013 with the officer uplift and replacing those retiring and resigning – and Steve wants to ensure proper provisions are in in place to protect them from the strains of the job.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The new Government] needs to maintain uplift. It can\u2019t just be a quick hit of 20,000 because that just gets us back to where we were.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be continued investment in policing and also the infrastructure that\u2019s needed to bring those new officers in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to put in proper provisions to deal with stress in the workplace in policing as I think it\u2019s a bit of a time bomb that\u2019s going to go off at some point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s already starting to creep so we need to focus on giving forces ring-fenced financial budgets to improve the occupational health provision, which will hopefully lead to our aim that every cop, every frontline officer or public facing officer has an annual one-to-one counselling discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be a matter of course. That\u2019s what we should be striving towards.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a key issue which the Federation hopes whoever is Home Secretary after the December poll will take onboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to get people back [into policing], get cops looked after, get cops\u2019 salaries back up to where they should be, and let\u2019s get officers recognised for what they do,\u201d Steve said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need legislation in place to protect officers properly and for them to feel secure doing their jobs on a day-to-day basis.\u201d<\/p>\n