Police pay: we love a kneejerk reaction

Don’t be fooled by sob stories:
policemen today are well looked
after, says robert chesshyre

British police officers are the ultimate moaners: the bosses, the shift system, the feckless public or - as this week - pay. In fact, as one police inspector said to me - very much out of earshot of his colleagues - few groups of workers are as mollycoddled as the police. "We invented cradle to grave security," he said.

I have met police constables who left teaching because the pay is better on the beat and - as the more frank coppers will confess - less stressful.

Since Lord Justice Edmund Davies gave the police a mighty pay boost in the early days of Mrs Thatcher's government, they have prospered. As Gordon Brown said yesterday, police wages have risen 10 per cent faster than inflation in the ten years Labour have been in power.

Gross average pay rates show just how well police do by comparison with other key

It could be that Jacqui Smith is correct in thinking tax- payers have had enough special pleading

public sector workers: while the average policeman (sergeant and below) earns £36,021, the average secondary school teacher gets £31,340. Comparative figures for firefighters (leading fire officer and below) are £25,863 and for nurses £23,044.

In addition police have benefits and pension arrangements most workers can only dream about. Many leave the job on full pension in their 40s and pick up further lucrative careers.

Police rely on kneejerk public support, and play on fears and emotions - this week it has been the 'terrorism' card. But few nowadays parrot the 'Aren't our police wonderful' line.

Once the boys in blue could expect everyone to fall into line. This time it could be Home Secretary Jacqui Smith (whom cops want to resign) is correct in thinking tax-payers have had enough special pleading.

Radio phone-in shows in recent days have included far more hostile callers than in the past. Police can no longer assume public support: they would be well advised to count their blessings.