Thames Valley Police officers tell the Police Federation how they are feeling

A shocking 86% of Thames Valley Police officers feel ‘worse off’ financially now than they were five years ago, new research has found.

And 19% ‘never’ or ‘almost never’ have enough money to cover all their essentials, according to the 2022 Police Federation of England and Wales Pay and Morale Report, published this month.

More than 1,200 officers responded to the research, which found that a shocking 97% had seen living cost increases in the previous month.

86% of respondents said they were dissatisfied with their pay.

Last year police officers across England and Wales were given an average of a 5% pay rise – but this was way below inflation booming now at more than 10%. Household bills are rising sharply and over the past 12 years police officer pay has fallen in real terms by 25%.

Officers are struggling with low morale and lack of support, the survey found. A huge 92% of officers said they do not feel respected by the Government, and 55% per cent said they were experiencing low morale.

Officers are also coming under attack from the public, the report showed, with 14% having suffered one or more injuries that required medical attention as a result of work-related violence in the last year.

Low mood and poor wellbeing is a problem at the force; 65% said they do not feel valued within the service, and 69% said they would not recommend joining up to others.

Sadly, 86% of respondents indicated that they had experienced feelings of stress, low mood, anxiety, or other difficulties with their health and wellbeing over the last 12 months, and 45% said that they find their job ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ stressful.

Worryingly, nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents told researchers that they intend to resign from the police service either ‘within the next two years’ or ‘as soon as they can’.

Aileen O’Connor, Vice Chair of Thames Valley Police Federation, said: “The role of a police officer is unique and like no other, whether you are a response officer, a detective, a neighbourhood officer or a specialist officer involved in the firearms arena or a dog handler, every day you potentially put your life on the line when dealing with the undesirables in our society.

“These undesirables cause pain and suffering in the communities across the Thames Valley and the only people to bring them to justice and protect the people within Thames Valley are the officers of the Thames Valley Police.

"Our officers are assaulted daily, punched, kicked, spat at, driven at and assaulted with weapons.

“They return home to their loved ones, wife, husbands, partners and children with bruised faces, cuts to the bodies and more importantly damaged souls with the physiological effects of being assaulted trying to do their very best.

“All we ask the Government to do is give each and every officer a meaningful and in line with inflation our officers so they can continue to live and work within the South East area of Thames Valley and to recognise they do a job like no other.

“92% of our members who completed the Pay & Morale survey stated they did not feel valued by the government, this reflected in the lack of meaningful pay award our officers received from the Government last year.

“Our officers are being pulled from pillar to post and they are not being allowed to devote the time to be proactive in catching criminals, or focussing on bringing offenders to justice or having enough time to spend with victims of crimes.

“This is due to a number of factors, workloads, an inexperienced workforce to share the work, and the time spent on file preparation with the new DG6 guidance around disclosure. Even the simplest and most straightforward case file is now taking hours and hours. That’s hours of being station bound being swamped in paperwork and not being out across the communities they serve.

“And now this year we face strikes within the NHS affecting nurses and doctors and ambulance staff, who is it the public call upon in their hour of need when they can’t get an ambulance or they can’t get hold of social services or they can’t parent/discipline their 12 year old child… yes you guessed it, the police.”

Aileen added: “Until the Government addresses the issues across society around high inflation rates, the cost-of-living crisis and the issues across the other public sector arenas that affect policing, things simply won’t change, and policing will continue to bear the brunt of this.

“I would like to thank the PCC and our Chief for agreeing to raise the South East allowance for our officers from £2,500 to £3,000 per year which is the maximum they can raise this to. Our officers should be seeing slightly more in the pay packets at the end of the month, but they probably aren’t due to the high cost of living crisis we are in and again this is an issue that only the government can address.

“Finally I would like to thank our members for taking part in the survey, the only way we can address the issue our members raise is to have the data around it. We will continue to use the data to hold the Chief and the PCC to account around the issues raised by our members.”

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