THE CHAIR of West Mercia Police Federation says more must be done to back police officers after new figures reveal record numbers are resigning from the service.
Steve Butler said it was concerning more than 9,000 officers left policing in England and Wales in the year ending March 31, the second highest in a financial year.
Of the 9,080 officers who left, 43 per cent (3,964) had less than five years’ service.
Steve says officers have experience ‘erosion of their pay and conditions’ and are being asked to do ‘more than ever for less reward’ whilst being used as a ‘political football’.
He also believes officers are worried about the conduct process and the consequences of doing their job.
Steve said: “We need to change all and back our officers otherwise more will continue to leave the service.”
Of those leaving, the most common was voluntary resignation (56 per cent of leavers). The number of officers voluntarily resigning amounted to 3.4 per cent of all officers in the year ending March 31. This is the highest on record and similar to the previous year (3.3 per cent).
This figure has been on an upward trend since March 2012 when it was at 0.8 per cent.
Of police officers voluntarily resigning, in the year ending March 2024, 72 per cent had less than five years’ service and a further 10 per cent had between five and 10 years’ service, the Home Office said.
In the past year, 9,479 officers joined the service, a decrease of 6,848 on the previous year when 16,328 officers joined. In March 2024, there were 147,746 officers, a 0.2 per cent increase from 147,434 on the previous year.
The West Mercia Police Federation’s annual pay and morale survey found 15 per cent of respondents intended to resign from policing.
Morale (86 per cent), the impact of the job on their mental health (81 per cent) and how police were treated by the last government (77 per cent) were the main reasons. A total of 81 per cent said they were unhappy with their pay and remuneration, while 17 per cent reported never or almost never having enough money to cover their essentials.
Steve said: “We’ve recruited people to policing in the Uplift programme but we’re losing new and experienced officers right across the service.
“The downward trend in West Mercia of the past six months is concerning and there’s a danger the good work of the Uplift programme will be undone.”
