pete75 wrote:Some in this thread are highlighting being a police officer as a dangerous occupation. An officer is far less likely to suffer death or serious injury at work than a farmworker, builder, fisherman,scaffolder, electrician, plumber, miner, quarryman, manufacturing worker and a fair number of other occupations.
The pay isn't so bad either :-
https://www.policeoracle.com/pay_and_co ... cales.html"The 2017 Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) report found that in 2015/16 police pay was six per cent above professional occupations and 41 per cent higher than wages in the wider economy.
More than half of police constables are currently at the top of their pay bracket. Median total earnings for constables and sergeants are £40,000.
Police officers are entitled to membership of a defined benefit pension scheme. Members benefit from employer contributions of 21.3 per cent of their pay towards their pensions on top of their own contribution. All contributing members are able to take their pension by age 60, with the majority able to take a pension sooner.
Officers receive a minimum of 22 days of annual leave, rising with service to 30 days, plus bank holidays as well as flexible working schedules and career breaks."
Without being promoted salaries rise to almost £40,000 pa automatically. Someone of reasonable competence in any job will get promoted and with only a couple of promotions an officer will be on a salary of over £50,000 pa. Salaries can exceed £200,000 per annum. Overtime above normal shift hours is paid at time and a third and bank holiday working attracts double time.
No one, certainly not me, would ever deny that quarrymen, racing drivers, or farmers do dangerous jobs. However, the OP isn't insulting quarrymen, racing drivers or even farmers - he is having a pop at police officers, and that it the issue under discussion.
And police officers get paid. I'm not sure what the surprise is there. Do you think they'd do it for free? Would you work for free? I wouldn't. In my final year in the Feds my annual salary was less than half that which I'd earned BG'ing. Indeed, the frills alone (5 star hotels, use of luxury cars in my own time, a Rolex watch given me as a gift) in a year spent doing that were probably worth more than I earned in my final year of coppering. No one joins the police to get rich. Except for those that come directly from the military, most people take a pay cut to join the police.
Work in Lidl for £26k and a 38 hour week, or become a copper at as little as £19k and endure shift work, abuse and insults. Which would you do? Surprisingly, few are taking the option now and a crisis is forming in police recruitment. On a recent intake of direct-entry detectives into the Met, every single officer, all 46 of them, failed the fitness test. That's the calible of applicant the pay and conditions is now attracting.
And yes, coppers get a pension. Do you not have one? Do you pay 15% of your gross salary into you pension like I had to? When you're paying 15% it's hardly a freebie. A copper doesn't pay it, they don't get it - it's not free, it's not automatic, and the salary is such that many coppers forego the pension and keep the 15% for themselves just to get by. Please, just in the interests of balance tell us how many % of your salary do you pay?
But then as a private individual you can't be ordered to stay on duty.
You can't be ordered back on duty on a rest day with zero notice.
You do not have to get permission to live wherever you want. Not nice agreeing a sale on a house and finding your chief constable won't give you permission to live there. Never happened to me, but it does happen.
You do not have to declare certain people who you might associate with - not just criminals either, if I were simply hanging out with someone as harmless as a solicitor I'd have had to declare it.
You can partake in political activity.
You do not have to seek permission to join a political party.
If you strike, you will not be arrested and imprisoned for simply witholding your labour.
You can do absolutely anything (that's legal) you like with your free time without having to answer to anyone.
You get fingered for a minor motoring offence, you get an FPN - a copper gets an FPN and disciplinary action at work too, likely involving a deduction from their wages as a disiplinary measure. A forced donation of several hundred quid is fairly typical. Not nice for a new copper without a degree on £19k.
If you want to do unpaid charity work you're free to do so - a copper has to declare it and seek permission.
If a dustman comes across an unemptied bin in their own time they won't be expected to rush to empty it - a copper will be expected to become involved if they stumble into an incident, depsite not having any PPE with them.
And the list goes on and on and on. The restrictions on a coppers private life are huge, and in any other walk of life would in some case be considered quite significant infringements on ECHR rights. So next time you're trotting out a list of the upsides, please also list the massive list of downsides. Keep it balanced, don't cherry pick your facts.
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