PFEW launch myth-busting campaign

THE Police Federation of England and Wales has launched a myth-busting campaign to help sift out truth from spin.

First-up, the Federation took on the Government line that the police service will have 20,000 more police officers on our streets by 2023. It countered: “Truth: The 20,000 uplift will only bring us to the same number of officers as a decade ago. As of 2021, we are protecting 4 million more people with 7,456 fewer officers.”

It will also take on the myths around pensions, policing demand, single crewing and police funding.

Zoë Wakefield, Federation Chair, welcomed the campaign, said: “This is definitely a good idea. There is a lot of myth out there about us and what we do and a campaign like this can only do good. I think it might open peoples’ eyes a bit.”

Zoë said the Federation could take on the myth that police officers are somehow super humans that never need to rest or refuel. She said: “I often think about officers buying food during their working day.

“It needs to be pointed out that a lot of police stations don’t have canteens any more so if officers want hot food they’ve got to go into a public place to buy it. We need to eat and surely we’re entitled to a rest break. We don’t often get a break so normally it’s a quick dash in somewhere, grab something and dash back out again.

“I’m sure a lot of people think we’ve got a full-blown canteen and restaurants in our stations where we can eat. We can’t. There is no such thing anymore. Most haven’t even got a vending machine. We don’t have a choice but to go out and buy food a lot of the time.”