New Officers Should Be Aware Of Realities Of Policing

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 PFEW 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.

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.

“And if anybody came to me and asked about joining, I would be brutally honest with them about, ‘This is what you’re getting yourself into. This is how policing is going to look over the next however many years.

“This is how you can expect to be treated by the Government, by the public. This is the sort of support you will or won’t get from your force’. I wouldn’t put any glitter or rainbows or unicorns all over it. I’d be brutally honest.”

Steve told the Home Affairs Committee on 18 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.