Police officers are 'stretched to breaking point', according to Hampshire Police Federation

Hampshire Police Federation chair Zoe Wakefield has stated that 'officers are stretched to breaking point with so many demands on their time and no one else to pass the work onto,' following comments from the head of an independent review on policing.

Sir Michael Barber is leading a Strategic Review of Policing, which will make over 50 recommendations for the future of forces in England and Wales.

Ahead of its publication, Sir Michael told Hampshire Police Federation: 'Too often our police are effectively a social service dealing more with mental health and family breakdown than fighting crime.’

He added that there ‘aren’t enough police’, they ‘haven’t got the best technology’ and they face an ‘organisational challenge’ with crimes like fraud needing to be ‘strategically addressed from the centre’ while forces around the country tackle local offending.

The chair of Hampshire Police Federation said: ‘A police officer’s primary role is to save life or limb, if this means responding to a call of someone who is suffering a mental health episode and putting themselves or someone else at risk, then a police officer, together with a mental health professional, should attend.

‘However, police officers are often deployed to incidents involving mental health, missing persons, etc where there is no risk to life or limb, particularly during the evenings and weekends when other services are not available.

'This obviously distracts from preventing and detecting crime. Many officers will say they do not have any time to do any proactive policing.

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‘Officers are stretched to breaking point with so many demands on their time and no one else to pass the work onto. Officers are regularly working beyond their scheduled finish time meaning they have less time to recuperate before the next busy shift.’

Ms Wakefield added that there are not enough officers to cope with the demand and that the new uplift programme may be a start, but it is not enough to get police officer numbers back to how they were before.

Hampshire Police Federation is the staff association for 3,000 police constables, sergeants and inspectors (including chief inspectors) at Hampshire Constabulary.

Assistant chief constable Ben Snuggs of Hampshire Constabulary said: ‘We recognise the resourcing challenges in policing which has been reflected in the Strategic Review of Policing report today.

‘Policing is complex. Our officers and staff undertake challenging roles in more and more challenging circumstances. It can be really high pressure and we understand the impact this has on workload and morale. The wellbeing and resilience of our officers and staff is incredibly important to us and we are committed to proactive and reactive strategies to increase good health and wellbeing in our policing teams so they feel equipped to deliver the best service to public.

‘In addition, and after years of austerity, we are now building up our officer numbers under the national uplift programme. Bedding in new recruits will take time, but we are on track to recruit the additional 600 new officers by March 2023 with the support of our Police and Crime Commissioner. This will enable us to continue to serve our communities to the best of our ability.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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