A NEW police covenant which could see police officer welfare protected by law mustn\u2019t bulldoze existing good practices out of the way, Essex Police Federation has warned.<\/p>\n
Home Secretary Priti Patel has launched a consultation period on the covenant, first proposed by her predecessor Sajid Javid.<\/p>\n
She says protecting officers from assaults and injury while they are on duty is one of her top priorities as part of reducing what she calls the \u2018epidemic\u2019 of attacks on officers.<\/p>\n
The covenant would focus on officers\u2019 and police staff members\u2019 health and wellbeing and enshrine the support they receive in law.<\/p>\n
Steve Taylor, Essex Police Federation Chairman, says the covenant would be \u2018positive and progressive\u2019 for officers but wants to ensure practices such as TRiM are not scrapped to make way for any new legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good that we are consulting on the covenant because even such a progressive and positive thing does come with issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to ensure that TRiM, [Trauma Risk Incident Management] isn\u2019t railroaded out of the way by some of these other kind of welfare schemes or welfare programmes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got some things that work. Let\u2019s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.\u201d<\/p>\n
The covenant appears to be ushering in a new era for relations between Whitehall and policing after the service was mauled by cuts under the previous administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great that police officer welfare is getting the prominence that it deserves and that we are seriously talking, as a national service, around better welfare provision for our members- it can only be a good thing,\u201d Steve said.<\/p>\n
Announcing the consultation period Ms Patel said; \u201cI\u2019m making the physical protection of officers my top priority. That means giving you the kit you need to stay safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut protecting officers is not just about equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe utterly appalling rise in attacks shows that. We need a strong deterrent to make these thugs think twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Police Covenant is a pledge to do more as a nation to help those who serve our country,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo ensure our pride in the police pays off in practice. To recognise the bravery, commitment, and sacrifices of serving and former officers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A NEW police covenant which could see police officer welfare protected by law mustn\u2019t bulldoze existing good practices out of the way, Essex Police Federation has warned. Home Secretary Priti\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110536,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110305\/revisions\/110536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}