TOP COP: THE STRESSED BLUE LINE
‘We burn officers out’
POLICE officers are being driven out of the force after just 10 years.
Young recruits are doing 48-hour shifts and face horrific crimes.
Detective Inspector Jerry Waite said: “I do think our staff are probably under more pressure now than they ever have been because there is not the same release – they work longer.
“The hours officers are working now are a lot more and they are having to – just to get a case charge.
“There are an awful lot of officers who only come now for 10 years and I do wonder if the reason they last 10, 12, 13 years a go is because we burn them out.”
Bedfordshire chief constable Jon Boutcher also spoke out at the latest release of TV show 24 Hours In Police Custody, which is filmed in his police stations. He said: “I do think there is some link to the challenges that other public services face that has a domino or a knock-on effect to policing.
“When people simply cannot get a response from whatever service, their last port of call often is the police service through 999.
“So our young officers have to be social workers, mental health nurses, they literally have to have a gamut of skills that, after a period of time, with the number of officers we have got against the demands that we face, has an accumulative and damaging effect.
“One of the first things we tend to cut are those support services that can potentially help our staff.”
Last night a Home Office spokesman said: “The Government takes the issue of police welfare very seriously.” ¬ 24 Hours In Police Custody returns to Channel 4, February 19, 9pm. louise.berwick@dailystar.co.uk