At first sight I thought this must be a joke from April Fool's Day. However, it is a deadly serious prospect as you will gather from reading on. Thank God I am retired. I would never be recruited today!
Chief Constables are planning to introduce a national scheme that would see people wanting to become police officers working for free before they can join the force.
The move is part of their response to the large budget cuts they will have to make as part of the government's slashing of public spending.
The Association of Chief Police Officers has asked the National Policing Improvement Agency for guidance on a scheme to be introduced across all 43 forces, senior sources have confirmed.
Critics say it means policing on the cheap and could deter recruits from poorer backgrounds. Police chiefs believe it could save £40m-£50m.
ACPO held its annual conference last week in Manchester, where police chiefs discussed in public and private how to maintain their ability to fight crime while coping with the biggest budget cuts in recent history. Police chiefs believe they can build support for the changes, and bypass or neutralise opposition from within the service, by selling it as a move towards greater professionalism.
They will also argue that it puts aspiring police officers on the same footing as other public sector professions, such as nurses, who are expected to fund their training themselves unless they can win a bursary.
Three models for a national scheme are being studied. One is operated by Lancashire police, in which those wanting to join the force first have to attend a university offering a two-year course. This teaches recruits law and policing in diverse communities. During the course, students work as special constables. Only after completing it can they apply to become full police constables.
Lancashire accepts the scheme has helped cut its training costs. There is no guarantee of a job at the end of it.
Scotland Yard is proposing to introduce a scheme that was passed by its watchdog last week. Potential recruits would have to work for up to a year as special constables before being allowed to apply to Britain's largest force.
The third model is that operated by Surrey police, which sees recruits pay £700 for training. Mark Rowley, Chief Constable of Surrey police, said it does more than save money: "We are getting better recruits, because they have committed their own time to learning and progressing further their career in the police."
Rowley said the scheme means once people join his force they have "better practical skills than before".
Simon Reed, vice-chair of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said: "We're not convinced. We may find the cost of it deters people from ethnic minorities and from working-class backgrounds, people we want to see joining. It is putting another barrier in their way. We hope they will not replace police officers with specials."
He said people from the armed forces are not allowed to serve as special constables, so they could in effect be barred from joining the police. Reed added that some police forces were not recruiting, meaning people who work for free or pay for training courses could end up having wasted their time and money.
In London, Labour is opposing the Metropolitan police scheme. Joanne McCartney, a Labour member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said: "If the Met can get this through, then other forces will follow suit. It's unfair and will disadvantage anyone with caring responsibilities, anyone already in work, and anyone who can't afford to work unpaid for a year or more.
"We know this is a financially driven decision and not one taken in the best long-term interests of the Met. Specials are an invaluable asset, but they are an addition to full-time officers. They do not offer the same resilience as they can't be compelled to work, and nor should they."
The Policing Minister, Nick Herbert, spent three days – an unusually large time for someone in government – at the ACPO Conference. He told the Guardian that money could also be saved by buying items centrally, such as information technology systems.
Herbert said the days of 43 forces in England and Wales doing their own thing, regardless of cost, were over. "There have been 43 fiefdoms and when money was around that could go on. Money is much tighter and we cannot be relaxed about inefficiency."
Article courtesy of www.policeoracle.com
3 comments:
This is dreadful.
Who could afford to work for a year without pay?
No-one I should think.
Frightening.
In my group of Police applicants (sop many years ago) were four ex m ilitary personnel - of which I was one. We all had families, mortgages and a need to receive some form of financial support during our training. Of those four, one went on to be a Det Ch Supt, one received the QPM for gallantry, one was shot dealing with a burglary (and recovered) and one became an expert witness on road traffic law. Every single one of us spent many years in productive service to the community and none of us would have joined under the current recruitment situation. This is a short sighted decision merely to save money and will probably result in only those wealthy (or desparate) enough to put up with these conditions. Having a university degree will not automatically make a good copper but that is what the the current politically correct "all criminals are misunderstod victims" groiups seem to want. I despair of the future.
Plodnomore
That what worries me too.
The future.
No government should be making cuts in our police force anyway.
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