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Stop Poaching Our Police
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Today in Parliament a campaign was launched to stop the Metropolitan Police from continuing to aggressively poach Thames Valley Police officers.
The MPs for Slough, and Reading West, Fiona Mactaggart and Martin Salter have persuaded Police Minister Tony McNulty to meet with them to discuss the introduction of “transfer fees” payable to police authorities who lose fully trained officers to other forces. The MPs made their call in a debate on police funding in the House of Commons on Wednesday 31st January. The two MPs worked together four years ago to win an additional pay supplement of up to an extra £2,000 for police officers on the borders of London. Basic police pay in the Metropolitan Police is over £6,000 higher than rates in the Thames Valley. This coupled with the offer of free travel had triggered a large exodus of police officers from the southern part of the Thames Valley Force. More recently the Met have been adopting aggressive recruiting techniques including the payment of introduction fees. In her speech Fiona Mactaggart said: “At present, the Metropolitan police force is recruiting in a predatory manner in the Thames Valley police area. It is offering bounties—I can think of no other word—of £200 or £250 to anyone who introduces an experienced officer into the Met.” Martin Salter MP said in the Commons: “Although we can celebrate the fact that Thames Valley police has a record number of officers—some 4,280, thanks to increased investment from the Government—the benefits are somewhat diminished by the attempts of neighboring forces, including the Met, to poach fully trained officers from places like Reading and Slough? "Is it not time that we considered transfer payments to compensate areas that are losing out for the costs of training and recruitment?” Fiona Mactaggart asked the Minister: “To take on board proposals to deal with the waste of public money that occurs when one police force invests in stealing trained officers from another force?” She added: “Will the Minister consider stopping the Metropolitan police and other forces spending public money on bounties and on ringing and texting serving officers in other forces? Obviously, they should provide information about posts, but aggressive marketing and recruitment is inappropriate. "Will my hon. Friend consider the imposition of a transfer fee if officers transfer to another force after training, whereby the receiving force would recompense the sending force for the cost of training the officer?” Speaking after the debate Mr Salter said: “The problem of aggressive recruiting by the Met is taking much needed police officers from Reading and Slough. The audacity of the Met is breathtaking as on Monday, they are even laying on a coach from Reading to transport 30 serving Thames Valley officers to a recruitment fair. It is time to stop Thames Valley from being used a “training camp”. Reading Councillor Tony Page, member of the Thames Valley Police Authority added: “It costs around £150,000 to train a police officer and it is simply not fair to local taxpayers if they are continually swapping fully trained police officers for raw recruits”. 31/01/07 |
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