Before reading further I suggest reading this (excuse the source).
If you've skipped the article let me give you a brief summary; the daily wail is up in arms about the amount some police officers are claiming in overtime. Some of these amounts run to tens of thousands of pounds per year for some officers and in some cases exceed their basic salary. On reading it, you can almost taste the outrage although there is the concession that average overtime payments are around £4, 000 per annum.
Before I launch into full song I should qualify what I say by pointing out I only know what is printed in the article which is hardly objective.
Do these police officers deserve the over-time payments? Unequivocally yes. If they are doing the work, the deserve to either be paid for it or be given much higher salaries to compensate for the extra time worked. Currently the police grades entitled to overtime are limited to constables and sergeants; essentially the ones that do the majority of the grunt work. Also the ones that have just been royally shafted in relation to their pensions and working conditions. Overtime seems the sensible option for these officers not least because increased salaries have been shown not to work; Inspectors were awarded an annual salary increase in lieu of overtime, this has not increased in line with inflation and rarely reflects the true hours worked (source Inspector Gadget if you're interested).
Many Police Officers do an extremely demanding job under very, very trying circumstances. They have to deal with the most unsavoury aspects of our society, the ones we would prefer not to think about and, thanks to them, we rarely have to. While doing their job, they get abused by those they try and keep in check whilst facing contempt and derision from the media and some quarters of society for doing it. In addition to this, they face the real and distinct possibility of severe injury every time they go out and do their job (apparently the baddies don't like being nicked... who would have thought?). They do this for a fairly modest wage (yes it is better than some but is it truly reflective of the sacrifices they make in terms of personal safety, family life, free time and low-stress working).
Bearing in mind the above, can anyone really suggest officers don't deserve to be paid for the hours they work? Like I say, I don't know the details of the case but I struggle to see how one can be paid overtime without working. Therefore, for these payments to be claimed, the officers in question must have put in the hours. I hope they were on the front-line rather than dealing with bullshit but even if the latter were true, it's not the officer's fault that they are ploughing through paperwork. Blame years of government who are incapable of appreciating anything unless it has a number attached. Officers are now expected to fill out pages of forms as part of their job, we cannot expect them to do this in their free time. Yes, policing is a vocation/calling and most officers do it for the love of the job but that doesn't mean we as a society have the right to expect them to sacrifice either the quality of their work of their free time doing it.
In addition to the payment for work done argument we should remember that police pensions have just been decimated while pay and conditions have been made considerably less favourable. Why then should we be shocked that officers are doing overtime to get some extra cash either to live on or to stash away for later. Who can blame them, especially when your job carries the risk of career-ending injury on a daily basis? In fact, if the officers are using overtime payments to plan for the future then should they not be applauded for taking a responsible attitude to the future rather than relying on the state? And if they are not, well frankly who cares. We have all been in positions where we could do with a bit of extra cash, why should we deny police officers the opportunity of making some?
Rant over.
JR
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