POLICING is no longer a job for life and forces can expect to keep some officers for as little as five years before they leave the service altogether.<\/p>\n
New statistics show that resignations from the police service have doubled nationally over the past five years, according to The Times newspaper.\u00a0And Essex Police Federation has said that part of the problem could be that new officers \u2018dip their toe in\u2019 to the job before leaving to pursue other interests.<\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n Secretary Phil Suarez said: \u201cOfficer resignations are something that I keep a close eye on.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s multiple reasons for it: we\u2019ve got officers now that purely and simply are just coming up to retirement age, and there are a lot of them because there was a lot of recruitment previously.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we have to accept the fact that for many youngsters now coming into the profession, it isn\u2019t a job for life.<\/p>\n \u201cEven really probably from a College of Policing perspective, it\u2019s sold as a five-year career, perhaps, where you uplift your skills, you bring something unique to the party yourself. Maybe you\u2019ve been a graduate or you\u2019ve had experience in other walks of life.<\/p>\n \u201cWhereas when I joined it was always going to be a 30+ career, I think in this day and age you dip your toe in and you do your five or six years and then you move on.<\/p>\n \u201cI personally don\u2019t agree with that way forward because we\u2019re in danger of losing a lot of skills if that\u2019s the way we go.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think when you look at the Winsor Review and all these sorts of things that have happened over recent years, that was always on the cards and a lot of thrust behind these reports was let\u2019s just capture people for a certain amount of time, we\u2019ll use them as we can and then they move on. A lot of police training and recruitment is heading into that arena now.\u201d<\/p>\n Phil also said that the stresses and strains of the job are causing more officers to leave \u2013 and that looking after officers\u2019 mental health must be a priority for forces.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI think when you look at the remunerations for police officers, you look at the stress levels. It\u2019s a relatively well paid job, and I think some of the problem is when you look at where we sit in the national pay percentiles and all that sort of stuff, actually police officers are reasonably well paid.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you balance that against the stress and the violence that police officers suffer on a daily basis. In Essex you\u2019ve got a 1,000 fewer officers so those that are left behind are actually picking up a very, very increased workload and that burns people out. Are there other jobs out there that are probably a lot easier for the money? I suspect that may be the case.<\/p>\n \u201cOfficers come in to the profession because they want to give something back to the community, they want to do the right thing, they want to serve the public. But actually, at what point do you say enough\u2019s enough, \u2018I can\u2019t do that at the risk of my health\u2019?<\/p>\n \u201cI certainly think it\u2019s something that the Chief will be looking at very closely and will probably share our concerns over recruitment.<\/p>\n \u201cI had the pleasure of talking to 66 new recruits at Essex Police Training College, and I think the key to the future is what investments do we give those people, what support do we give those people?<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re quite happy now talking in public about mental health, as I said to the student officers \u2018You have to look after each other, you are the future\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think we can get over these problems, that our people that we are recruiting in quite large numbers, we have to make sure that we try and keep them and retain them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"