Number of police officers resigning early nearly TREBLES in decade as it’s no longer job for life

Police officers are no longer treating the job as a life-long career as voluntary resignations have trebled in the last decade. 

The number of voluntary resignations from the police was 1,158, which accounted for 18 per cent of people leaving the force in 2012. 

In 2022, the figure had risen to 3,433 – or 42 per cent of leavers – threatening to undercut Boris Johnson’s 2019 manifesto pledge of 20,000 extra officers. 

More than 1,800 of the officers hired to boost numbers as a result of the policy have already quit. A total of 15,000 additional officers were hired as part of the Police Uplift Programme, at a cost of £3.6billion.

The figure of voluntary resignations from the force rose to 3,433 in 2022, a 300 per cent increase on 2012

Police officers are being put off by ‘organisational injustice’ and the feeling that they had to buy into the establishment culture

Highly trained candidates are taking their skills elsewhere, blaming a poor workplace culture. Careers in the force of 30 years or more had previously been the norm.

Many are also being influenced by policing scandals, including the revelations of several ‘grossly offensive’ Whatsapp group chats.  

The exodus of both new and experienced officers means that one third of current police officers have less than three years’ experience. 

Thirty forces in England and Wales are currently open to new applicants. 

Professor Sarah Charman from Portsmouth University told The Telegraph that officers are leaving due to a bad workplace culture. 

She said officers are becoming disillusioned and that this was having an impact on the quality of police services.  

Professor Charman conducted exit interviews with nearly 100 officers who have chosen to leave the force prematurely. 

The exodus of officers threatens to derail former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s 2019 manifesto commitment of 20,000 extra police officers by March 2023

She said while in the past the police force had been seen as a job for life, officers were becoming frustrated with what she called ‘organisational injustice’. 

‘The way the police service recruits and trains people, particularly at the entry level is about making sure everyone fits in. “Forget everything you have learned on the outside, forget all the friendships you have got on the outside, you are part of us now, you are part of our family”.’ 

Professor Charman added that forces need to ‘get rid of’ the attitude that officers would be easy to replace and that they should be grateful to be working there. 

‘Policing is in the luxurious position of having officers who when they join are incredibly excited have often wanted to do the job all their lives.

‘They bring a level of enthusiasm and expectations that other organisations could only dream of and they are almost squandering that enthusiasm in those early days through the culture and identity of the organisation when they should be capitalising on it.’

Other reasons that have been suggested to explain the phenomenon include a 20 per cent real terms wage cut in recent years. 

Some officers have claimed that they have been forced to use food banks.  

Police forces across the country have also been rocked by scandals throughout the year. 

Sir Mark Rowley said at a parliamentary committee recently: ‘I’ve got tens of thousands of great people and hundreds of people who shouldn’t be with me’

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told a parliamentary committee recently that he wasn’t able to get rid of bad officers. 

Sir Mark complained he was unable to purge the force of its ‘toxic minority’ of ‘corrupt’ officers because of rules that force him to defer decisions about sackings to independent panels. 

‘I’ve got tens of thousands of great people and hundreds of people who shouldn’t be with me,’ he told the Home Affairs Select Committee.  

‘We have police officers who have gained serious criminal convictions whilst being police officers that we can’t sack. We’re having to put restrictions on them to reduce the damage they can do as leaders or in terms of serving the public.

‘The final word for removing a police officer doesn’t sit with me. It sits with independent tribunals who I’d say don’t have the same interest in the quality of policing in London as I do.’