‘Fingerprinting a dead body is not everyone’s cup of tea’

CASH-STRAPPED Staffordshire Police have paid out £75,522 in officer and staff bonuses in the past two years – including payments to bobbies for doing ‘unpleasant’ tasks.

A Post & Times investigation has found the force paid out £36,643.30 in 2016/17 and a further £38,879.12 in the last financial year.

That is in addition to £46,550 handed out in tutor bonus payments over the past two years to officers who support colleagues’ development.

The bonuses include:

■ £100 for each hostage and crisis negotiator called to an incident;

■ £50 for each officer who ‘searched and/or fingerprinted a badlydecomposed body’;

■ £50 for each bobby who acted as a crime scene manager;

■ £50 each for officers who carried out tasks of an ‘unpleasant nature’;

■ A total of £27,248 shared between around 30 officers in annual on-call bonuses over the two-year period;

■ £50 for each member of staff who helped with the relocation of a property office;

■ A total of £10,018.36 in annual first aider payments in 2016/17 – handed to more senior officers in return for them mentoring newly-qualified bobbies.

Mr Jervis added: “Officers get paid the tutor allowance for helping develop other officers – not everyone wants to be a tutor constable. It is a more demanding role and the payments encourage people to do that on top of their duties.”