Over half of North East police officers unhappy at work
Over 2000 officers responded to a survey by the Police Federation of England and Wales about pay and morale.
Half of police officers in the North East say they're unhappy at work according to a new survey published today.
Over 2000 officers responded to a survey by the Police Federation of England and Wales about pay and morale.
Northumbria Police officers were most unhappy, with 58.7% of officers saying their morale was low.
55% of Durham Police officers said they were unhappy and 53.5% of Cleveland Police officers.
The majority of officers from all forces said they wouldn't encourage someone to join the police, despite the profession historically seeing generations working together.
Across all three of our region's forces, how the police are treated as a whole was the primary factor for negative morale.
86% of Northumbria officers blamed this for causing their poor mood at work.
Andrea Breeze is from Cleveland Police Federation, she said:
"Police officers join the service to deliver to the community and anybody comes to work when morale is low does affect the service.
"In the worst case scenario, we have officers pensioned out with ill-health, which is not good.
"People join the service to deliver a good service and sometimes the affect of the service on them has meant they've been medically retired from the organisation.
"The cuts affect how we deal with services, but officers carry on and do very long hours so we can help the public."
Andrea accepts that in the worst situations staff with poor morale can develop mental health problems.
Andrew Cowan served at Durham Constabulary for 10 years before he left, he was later diagnosed with depression. He said:
“It only really developed after I got a serious injury where I got very little support and I ended up deciding to leave the job. Eight years after leaving the job I’m still getting nightmares, I’m currently getting medication for depression at the moment.
The hidden issue is what needs to be addressed, the mental health issues, the worries about pay, the long term effects on the job, working shifts also has a massive effect on people… I think it’s not surprising that the rank and file police officer does get a bad deal.
“They have to put up with so much on a daily basis, putting their lives on the line. Having fair pay and fair benefits is the right thing to do. I think they feel that there’s more being taken away from them and because they don’t have the right to strike they’ve got to be dependent on others fighting for their own future.”
Forces say they are taking an active approach to improve staff well-being and morale.
Deputy Chief Constable of Cleveland Police, Simon Nickless, said: “Cleveland Police officers work hard in challenging circumstances all year round and often put themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities. “Many of the factors affecting morale are complex and personal. We can’t influence pay but we are already focused on improving officers’ wellbeing and working lives.
“For some time now we have been undergoing significant reorganisation change in operational policing and we have been asking officers and staff to have their say on things like designing new shift patterns. “I note that there has been an improvement since 2015, firstly in the numbers of officers responding to the survey and in both the figures relating to the number of officers with low personal morale and those that believe there is low morale at Cleveland Police.
“We will continue to work with the Police Federation and involve our staff in order to deliver important changes to operational policing and wellbeing.”
We've contacted Durham and Northumbria Police for a comment.