Police representative warns people against becoming officers with it 'most difficult job in the world’

By Steve Deeks
Published 9th Feb 2023, 12:36 BST
Updated 9th Feb 2023, 12:36 BST
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NEW officers coming into the service should be told the realities of the job with ‘brutal honesty’ before they join.

Hampshire Police Federation Chair ZoeWakefield described policing as ‘the most difficult job in the world’ and said officers should come into the job with their eyes open. She was responding to comments by the national police federation chair Steve Hartshorn, who told a committee of MPs that he would not join the service now if he was at the beginning of his career.

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Zoe said: ‘The current climate of policing, it’s probably the most difficult job in the world. I wouldn’t disregard all the amazing times I’ve had in my police career and I know things are different to how they were when I joined. We talk to frontline officers who still love the job of frontline policing. I still miss frontline policing. So I think I might possibly still join now.

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Zoe Wakefield, Hampshire Police Federation chair, believes nothing will change under the current government.Zoe Wakefield, Hampshire Police Federation chair, believes nothing will change under the current government.
Zoe Wakefield, Hampshire Police Federation chair, believes nothing will change under the current government.

‘And if anybody came to me and asked about joining, I would be brutally honest with them about what you’re getting yourself into and how policing is going to look over the next however many years, and how you can expect to be treated by the government and public. I wouldn’t put any glitter or rainbows or unicorns all over it. I’d be brutally honest.’

Steve told the Home Affairs Committee in January that he would not join the service in 2023, because of the issues with the degradation of pay, pensions and conditions – adding that the pressure on policing is too much.