The county's police federation says the hard work of recruiting thousands of new officers is being undone by a retention crisis.
The county's police federation says the hard work of recruiting thousands of new officers is being undone by a retention crisis.West Mercia Police Federation chair Steve Butler has urged the Government to improve police pay and conditions, as new research reveals more than one in five officers plan to quit the service.
Mr Butler said: “With the uplift in police officers, I was hoping to see a big shift in the numbers of officers and the impact of that. “We need to seek other options to have the Government listen to us, which is why PFEW is looking into balloting members on whether they want to seek greater industrial rights in the form of collective bargaining and binding arbitration in relation to pay and conditions.”
More than three quarters – 78 per cent of police officers disclosed they are ‘dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’ with their overall remuneration – including basic pay and allowances, while 18 per cent reported ‘never’ or ‘almost never’ having enough money to cover all their essentials. The PFEW's national chair Steve Hartshorn said: “At a critical time where the police service is looking to rebuild eroded public confidence, a sustained recruitment and retention programme is needed to meet demand and deliver. The numbers we currently have are not enough and we are haemorrhaging officers.
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