Police Chief constables call for bonuses to be scrapped
Discussion
A delegation of force leaders told Home Secretary Theresa May that the system of payments are not part of the country's ''policing culture'' and should be dumped.
They said the system of making special payments to all ranks was imposed on police despite concerns that private sector remuneration was not suitable for their unique role.
...Britain's most senior officer said the service was damaged by the bonus culture, it does not motivate police to work harder and warned the payments could be ''divisive''.
...Sir Paul, who is paid £250,000 a year and previously called for a ''fundamental review'' of bonuses, said he has turned down more than £100,000 of performance-related pay since 2005.
He told the Daily Telegraph: ''If I had accepted a bonus I always felt as though I would compromise my operational independence and discharge of duties, and that is something that forms the basis to my whole approach to policing.
''I am very disappointed that we still have bonus payments in policing. Now is the time to get rid of them, as far as I'm concerned. They should never have been there in the first place.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politic...
They said the system of making special payments to all ranks was imposed on police despite concerns that private sector remuneration was not suitable for their unique role.
...Britain's most senior officer said the service was damaged by the bonus culture, it does not motivate police to work harder and warned the payments could be ''divisive''.
...Sir Paul, who is paid £250,000 a year and previously called for a ''fundamental review'' of bonuses, said he has turned down more than £100,000 of performance-related pay since 2005.
He told the Daily Telegraph: ''If I had accepted a bonus I always felt as though I would compromise my operational independence and discharge of duties, and that is something that forms the basis to my whole approach to policing.
''I am very disappointed that we still have bonus payments in policing. Now is the time to get rid of them, as far as I'm concerned. They should never have been there in the first place.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politic...
amir_j said:
A delegation of force leaders told Home Secretary Theresa May that the system of payments are not part of the country's ''policing culture'' and should be dumped.
They said the system of making special payments to all ranks was imposed on police despite concerns that private sector remuneration was not suitable for their unique role.
...Britain's most senior officer said the service was damaged by the bonus culture, it does not motivate police to work harder and warned the payments could be ''divisive''.
...Sir Paul, who is paid £250,000 a year and previously called for a ''fundamental review'' of bonuses, said he has turned down more than £100,000 of performance-related pay since 2005.
He told the Daily Telegraph: ''If I had accepted a bonus I always felt as though I would compromise my operational independence and discharge of duties, and that is something that forms the basis to my whole approach to policing.
''I am very disappointed that we still have bonus payments in policing. Now is the time to get rid of them, as far as I'm concerned. They should never have been there in the first place.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politic...
What bonus payments?They said the system of making special payments to all ranks was imposed on police despite concerns that private sector remuneration was not suitable for their unique role.
...Britain's most senior officer said the service was damaged by the bonus culture, it does not motivate police to work harder and warned the payments could be ''divisive''.
...Sir Paul, who is paid £250,000 a year and previously called for a ''fundamental review'' of bonuses, said he has turned down more than £100,000 of performance-related pay since 2005.
He told the Daily Telegraph: ''If I had accepted a bonus I always felt as though I would compromise my operational independence and discharge of duties, and that is something that forms the basis to my whole approach to policing.
''I am very disappointed that we still have bonus payments in policing. Now is the time to get rid of them, as far as I'm concerned. They should never have been there in the first place.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politic...
Nothing like for anyone below the rank of Inspector to my knowledge.
spaximus said:
I wouldn't object if the bonus was based on simple things like banging up criminals. Let's say £500 for every conviction of two years or more.
Firstly that's the job.Secondly, prison time is not the decision of the police.
Thirdly some officers make over 170 arrests a year..
I've never heard of anyone below Chief Super getting a bonus (which is a disgrace in itself!)
The ones that have had it were the ones that happily embraced the NU-Labour Statsi culture.
As per Insp Gadget:
There is an enormous gulf between police officers who deliver front line services, and those who make up the Senior Management Teams. I would characterise it like this.
The SMT’s are constantly changing the way they view police work, one day it’s about Crime Detection, another it’s all about Public Confidence. Sometimes it is paramount that we drive carefully within the highway code, the next it is crucial that we meet response times no matter what. Posters go up, like Orwellian screens, proclaiming that Neighbourhood Policing is the way ahead, then they come down, replaced by others urging compliance to some new trend or other.
Day after day, week after week they endlessly flit between competing priorities, dumping the previous ones shamelessly. Initiatives that once ruled are now no longer allowed to be spoken of. They even change their names, Senior Management Teams one day, Senior Leadership Teams the next. When I ask what has become of some new plan or other, people say “someone got promoted”. This means, the plan achieved its aim for someone (they could endlessly talk about it at a promotion board) and now that person has succeeded, the plan can go.
And the font line? We just simply get on with policing, trying our best to ignore all the confusion. I firmly believe that all new initiatives should be ignored on the basis that within months, they will be abandoned anyway. I remember being absolutely slated for not being able to quote chapter and verse on some nonsense (I think it was the Ruralshire Constabulary Vision or some such crap) during a Chief Constables visit in the summer. At Christmas the same year I asked my Chief Inspector to repeat the Vision to me, and he couldn’t even remember that we had a vision back in the summer!
You think all of this doesn’t matter? It does. It matters because it saps morale, creates cynicism, breeds mistrust between ranks and perhaps most serious of all, immunises individual police officers against new ideas. I once had a Superintendent follow my team into the Gents and continue to ask questions about our “performance figures” while we literally wiped blood from our shirts, using the mirror and some paper towels dipped in water. The blood was from a scene where a man had shot his own head off with a 12 bore. He never stopped to ask. When he left, the hatred and contempt in everyone’s faces was Bountyesque.
My message to the new government is this; ignore all the vested interests and the claptrap. Give us some old school traditional police front line leadership and we will deliver where others have failed. Although you might not be able to count it in the same way.
The ones that have had it were the ones that happily embraced the NU-Labour Statsi culture.
As per Insp Gadget:
There is an enormous gulf between police officers who deliver front line services, and those who make up the Senior Management Teams. I would characterise it like this.
The SMT’s are constantly changing the way they view police work, one day it’s about Crime Detection, another it’s all about Public Confidence. Sometimes it is paramount that we drive carefully within the highway code, the next it is crucial that we meet response times no matter what. Posters go up, like Orwellian screens, proclaiming that Neighbourhood Policing is the way ahead, then they come down, replaced by others urging compliance to some new trend or other.
Day after day, week after week they endlessly flit between competing priorities, dumping the previous ones shamelessly. Initiatives that once ruled are now no longer allowed to be spoken of. They even change their names, Senior Management Teams one day, Senior Leadership Teams the next. When I ask what has become of some new plan or other, people say “someone got promoted”. This means, the plan achieved its aim for someone (they could endlessly talk about it at a promotion board) and now that person has succeeded, the plan can go.
And the font line? We just simply get on with policing, trying our best to ignore all the confusion. I firmly believe that all new initiatives should be ignored on the basis that within months, they will be abandoned anyway. I remember being absolutely slated for not being able to quote chapter and verse on some nonsense (I think it was the Ruralshire Constabulary Vision or some such crap) during a Chief Constables visit in the summer. At Christmas the same year I asked my Chief Inspector to repeat the Vision to me, and he couldn’t even remember that we had a vision back in the summer!
You think all of this doesn’t matter? It does. It matters because it saps morale, creates cynicism, breeds mistrust between ranks and perhaps most serious of all, immunises individual police officers against new ideas. I once had a Superintendent follow my team into the Gents and continue to ask questions about our “performance figures” while we literally wiped blood from our shirts, using the mirror and some paper towels dipped in water. The blood was from a scene where a man had shot his own head off with a 12 bore. He never stopped to ask. When he left, the hatred and contempt in everyone’s faces was Bountyesque.
My message to the new government is this; ignore all the vested interests and the claptrap. Give us some old school traditional police front line leadership and we will deliver where others have failed. Although you might not be able to count it in the same way.
Elroy Blue said:
I've never heard of anyone below Chief Super getting a bonus (which is a disgrace in itself!)
The ones that have had it were the ones that happily embraced the NU-Labour Statsi culture.
Elroy, where do the Inspector Gadget posts come from? They reflect the suspicions that many of us have about the leadership amd management of the police, but also sound like the things most of us want to hear. For me they help to reinforce my basic underlying faith in the police which has been sorely tested over the last 13 years. More please. The ones that have had it were the ones that happily embraced the NU-Labour Statsi culture.
Inspector Gadget said:
Amusing stuff with more than a ring of truth to it
Call me naive but I admire someone in authority who is willing to refuse bonus payments and stick to his principles, when he feels the bonuses are neither appropriate nor deserved. I only regret that he will represent the minority, but let's hope the minority pressure and expose the greedy majority.
BruceV8 said:
Elroy Blue said:
I've never heard of anyone below Chief Super getting a bonus (which is a disgrace in itself!)
The ones that have had it were the ones that happily embraced the NU-Labour Statsi culture.
Elroy, where do the Inspector Gadget posts come from? They reflect the suspicions that many of us have about the leadership amd management of the police, but also sound like the things most of us want to hear. For me they help to reinforce my basic underlying faith in the police which has been sorely tested over the last 13 years. More please. The ones that have had it were the ones that happily embraced the NU-Labour Statsi culture.
Inspector Gadget said:
Amusing stuff with more than a ring of truth to it
http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/
Yep, paying a bonus based on number of arrests is a very poor approach.
For a few years now the police force I know something of has been trying to instil some sort of corporation like culture. Performance targets, 'senior management teams', 'line managers' etc using people who have not been a serving officer.
It is about time that it was realised that police forces are not profit generating entities and that a corporate attitude to running the police force will end with effective operational collapse from within. Mainly because a police force is not a business. No two days are the same, they cannot be predicted, planned for or recorded as such. It lies closer to a military force in its operational tempo and rhythm than any other sort of business or corporation (as do ambulance, fire, and hospital services). It is crazy to try and treat them as anything else. Things are only going to get worse in the name of cost cutting.
In my opinion, the police will become a totally reactionary service...no proactive policing because there won't be enough police officers. Watch the crime rate soar (it already has risen but targets, like cpi, can be changed to hide this) when the scum find out that the only police officer on shift is a 'shift manager' and will direct a team of pcso's. He/she will not leave the police station unless absolutely necessary. I know what I think of pcso's so I know the scum won't give a s
t about them. The police will lose control if they continue along this path.
I don't think this falls too far into the realms of tinfoil hattery....but this does.....
It is my opinion that this was the plan all along....total meltdown of society, then get the army in, and then we can all live in equal harmony together....thanks to the state and comrade brown.
For a few years now the police force I know something of has been trying to instil some sort of corporation like culture. Performance targets, 'senior management teams', 'line managers' etc using people who have not been a serving officer.
It is about time that it was realised that police forces are not profit generating entities and that a corporate attitude to running the police force will end with effective operational collapse from within. Mainly because a police force is not a business. No two days are the same, they cannot be predicted, planned for or recorded as such. It lies closer to a military force in its operational tempo and rhythm than any other sort of business or corporation (as do ambulance, fire, and hospital services). It is crazy to try and treat them as anything else. Things are only going to get worse in the name of cost cutting.
In my opinion, the police will become a totally reactionary service...no proactive policing because there won't be enough police officers. Watch the crime rate soar (it already has risen but targets, like cpi, can be changed to hide this) when the scum find out that the only police officer on shift is a 'shift manager' and will direct a team of pcso's. He/she will not leave the police station unless absolutely necessary. I know what I think of pcso's so I know the scum won't give a s
t about them. The police will lose control if they continue along this path. I don't think this falls too far into the realms of tinfoil hattery....but this does.....
It is my opinion that this was the plan all along....total meltdown of society, then get the army in, and then we can all live in equal harmony together....thanks to the state and comrade brown.
coanda said:
It is my opinion that this was the plan all along....total meltdown of society
It is the only route to a Glorious Communist Revolution, Comrade! I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat, BTW, but every stabilising institution from marriage to the army has taken a kicking under Brown. It isn't accidental.Anyway, is the blogger the same bloke behind "Wasting Police Time"? Well worth a read.
KANEIT said:
Call me naive but I admire someone in authority who is willing to refuse bonus payments and stick to his principles, when he feels the bonuses are neither appropriate nor deserved. I only regret that he will represent the minority, but let's hope the minority pressure and expose the greedy majority.
A tiny minority of officers get these 'bonuses'.He on 250,000 a year plus pension is in a far more secure position than they would be
If your earning far too much it is very easy to bemoan those who don't earn as much.
Ch Supt will be on around 40 % of his basic salary.
Only supt's or above get any 'bonus' payments.
Mr_annie_vxr said:
KANEIT said:
Call me naive but I admire someone in authority who is willing to refuse bonus payments and stick to his principles, when he feels the bonuses are neither appropriate nor deserved. I only regret that he will represent the minority, but let's hope the minority pressure and expose the greedy majority.
A tiny minority of officers get these 'bonuses'.He on 250,000 a year plus pension is in a far more secure position than they would be
If your earning far too much it is very easy to bemoan those who don't earn as much.
Ch Supt will be on around 40 % of his basic salary.
Only supt's or above get any 'bonus' payments.
hidetheelephants said:
Mr_annie_vxr said:
KANEIT said:
Call me naive but I admire someone in authority who is willing to refuse bonus payments and stick to his principles, when he feels the bonuses are neither appropriate nor deserved. I only regret that he will represent the minority, but let's hope the minority pressure and expose the greedy majority.
A tiny minority of officers get these 'bonuses'.He on 250,000 a year plus pension is in a far more secure position than they would be
If your earning far too much it is very easy to bemoan those who don't earn as much.
Ch Supt will be on around 40 % of his basic salary.
Only supt's or above get any 'bonus' payments.
hidetheelephants said:
Mr_annie_vxr said:
KANEIT said:
Call me naive but I admire someone in authority who is willing to refuse bonus payments and stick to his principles, when he feels the bonuses are neither appropriate nor deserved. I only regret that he will represent the minority, but let's hope the minority pressure and expose the greedy majority.
A tiny minority of officers get these 'bonuses'.He on 250,000 a year plus pension is in a far more secure position than they would be
If your earning far too much it is very easy to bemoan those who don't earn as much.
Ch Supt will be on around 40 % of his basic salary.
Only supt's or above get any 'bonus' payments.
I don't think they should get any bonuses, or there should be any bonuses in the police service.
coanda said:
Watch the crime rate soar (it already has risen but targets, like cpi, can be changed to hide this)
Has it? I thought the general acceptance was that overall crime had fallen but certain violent crimes were on the increase.I don't share your very pessimistic view of the situation.
The glass is half full comrade...
Devil2575 said:
coanda said:
Watch the crime rate soar (it already has risen but targets, like cpi, can be changed to hide this)
Has it? I thought the general acceptance was that overall crime had fallen but certain violent crimes were on the increase.I don't share your very pessimistic view of the situation.
The glass is half full comrade...
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff