A WORCESTER based police officer who joined the force four years ago says he would not make the same decision today due to poor salary and working conditions.
West Mercia Police Federation member, PC Mike Poultney has spoken out after a new report revealed record numbers of officers were quitting their jobs.
Four years ago Mike was a business manager at a car dealership and swapped his suit for a police uniform, agreeing to almost halve his annual salary after discussing it with his wife and working out the family finances.
He said: “At that point, I joined earning £24,000 and had worked out that in seven years I would be back up to around £40,000 with anti-social hours included, so it was an achievable aim with our outgoings at the time especially.
“However this year has been the biggest struggle to date when it has come to finances, although I have had my incremental pay increases and we have received increases as a workforce from the Government, they have not bridged the gap of ever increasing living costs.”
Mike, a response officer, said the police service would always be an inefficient spend for the Government but warned the consequences of reduced staffing and depleting morale due to pay and conditions should outweigh the cost.
“With where we sit now in terms of pay scales and money, if I was making the same decision I made four years ago to leave a well paid job to come and join as a police officer, I wouldn’t be able to make that leap,” he said.
Mike welcomed a recent 7 per cent pay increase but believes it will do little to combat current rates of inflation and rising living costs.
The Worcester police constable said funding had to be sorted out as an urgent priority because the pay issues were preventing good people from joining the service and seeing many experienced officers resign from the Force.
“Our job is demanding, and the demand on officers – especially student officers – is increasing,” he said.
“We have reached a point where all of the new starters and student officers seem to be very young and live at home.
“Anyone with a family simply cannot afford to come across and do the job on the starting salaries anymore.
“I think policing is missing out on massive amounts of life experience and skill sets from people no longer coming into the service.
“I am now the second longest serving officer on shift in my team and I am four-and-a-half years in. And the longest serving is about to move on.”
Mike said he still held the job in high regard and was proud of the service delivered to communities and the help and support offered to vulnerable people.
He added: “It becomes ever more difficult when experience and morale dwindle and the opinion of the Government is so clear. They want it all but don’t want to pay for it.
“We simply don’t seem worth it.”
