Officers recruited during the pandemic realising the job “is not for them”

POLICE officers recruited during Covid are now leaving the service after realising the job “is not for them”, Hampshire Police Federation has said.

Policing was one of the few industries to continue recruiting during the pandemic, meaning some applicants were joining who were not right for the job, the Federation said.

“There are more officers leaving now, but we’re recruiting more. Our force has done a lot of work on the reasons why people are leaving and quite a few are saying, ‘I’ve just realised policing’s not for me’.

“I think that because we advertise things in the recruitment campaign during Covid period when there wasn’t any other jobs being advertised, I think that a number of people thought they would give it a go before realising it’s not for them.

“We have had a couple leaving because of the demands of the degree entry programme alongside doing the full police officer role as well, but only a few, not big numbers at all.”

Nearly one in five of the officers responding to the latest leavers’ survey conducted by the Police Federation of England and Wales said they were leaving of their own accord and had not yet reached pension age.

Among those respondents who were resigning, 77 per cent said morale had a major effect on their decision to leave, 59 per cent cited the impact of the job on their psychological health while 41 per cent said they had been strongly influenced by the availability of better paid jobs outside of policing.

Four out of ten officers who were resigning said they would reconsider their decision if improvements were made in welfare and the work/life balance of the job. and are leaving policing. They are leaving jobs that they love because they can’t cope physically, financially or mentally.