Yesterday morning the MPA decided to endorse changes to the way that the Met recruits its officers. Under the new system the vast majority of recruits will be drawn from the Met Special Constabulary and from the Met PCSOs.
The measures will save the MPA between £10,000-£20,000 per recruit, recently the met have recruited up to 2,000 officer per year. If this scheme had been in place we would have saved around £12,000,000 per year. With the last government leaving the Home Secretary a huge financial black hole to deal with, a £12million saving cannot be overlooked.
But this isn't just about saving money, there are a number of factors which converge around this issue. The Met has a demographic hump that is working its way through the force, because of a spike in recruitment about 30 years ago we have a large number of officers coming to their retirement dates at about the same time. When they leave they will need to be replaced and the current system isn't very good at producing significant numbers of officers quickly.
The other demographic issue in the Met is around diversity, the Met Special Constabulary has a higher proportion of BME and female officers than the full time force. Finding a way to get the police to more closely reflect the communities they serve has been a nut that the leadership of the Met and the MPA have been trying to crack for years, these changes look like they could help address the current imbalance without compromising the quality of the Met's recruits. The plan has the support of the Met Police Federation and the Met Black Police Association.
My friend and colleague Tony Arbour AM described this plan as "the Holy Grail", it will produce better results than the current system for less money.
Funny then that a number of MPA members from left wing parties opposed it. Their main criticism was that it would favour "middle class" recruits because people on lower incomes wouldn't be able to spend the time volunteering as Specials. The problem with that argument is that it just isn't supported by the facts, the Specials are more diverse that the full time Met and the free travel concession that Specials receive is more significant a perk to lower income officers than those on higher incomes.
I've been really impressed by the imagination that the Met have displayed over this issue and have been disappointed (but not surprised) by how reactionary the left wingers have been.
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If I were feeling mischievous, I would be checking which politicians/commentators are complaining about this scheme, and which of them rely on unpaid interns to help them do their own job.
James,
Anything backed by the Black Police Association immediately has a question mark against it. No staff association in history has ever brought their company into such disrepute and everything they associate themselves with should be treated with extreme caution.
Has there ever been anything more corrupt, disgraceful and divisive than the BPA? Shame for mentioning them, you weaken your case with this tainted assiociation.
This will of course discriminate against those who currently have families, a full time job or mortgages and who simply cannot afford the time to volunteer for free. Ill thought out policy by the MPA. No surprises there. Time to abolish this pointless quango.
Say goodbye to the majority of mature applicants (ie generally the best ones) as there is no way that someone who lives in the real world will be able to give up employment and train as a bobby without it being financially viable.
Investing in the training and development of the young people who join our organisation is probably one of the few remaining practices that separates us from our third world police colleagues. It also signposts to our recruits how they are regarded and valued. Effort in, effort out and all that. It also gives us the ability to set a corporate standard and deliver national policing messages. Corporate, funded and disciplined initial training also delivers the team working, the essential bonds of friendship so needed in adversity and the remains of what is left of a collective ‘pride in the job’.
Recruits will now have to work for free (however it is dressed up) and probably pay for their own training. We are actually selling the future of our young people down the river.
In fact, why don’t we all work for free, privately paying for any training we need each time an employer introduces a new system or piece of kit? We used to have this system, it was called feudalism. It still exists in many corners of the third world.
It seems that once again, the youngsters who try hard, earn qualifications and keep their collective noses clean will end up paying for the privilege of having a career, while Wayne and Waynetta continue to ‘rake it in’ by sitting on their arse all day, eating themselves onto the ‘sick’ with a lack of exercise, no doubt texting death threats to each other and binge smoking over the latest baby.
This, along with keeping more persistent criminals out of prison and taking the jobs, wages and pensions of the few decent people left in Britain, will make for an interesting future.
While I understand your concerns about people's time and availablity to volunteer they are not supported by the evidence.
The number of Met Special Constables has gone from 800 to 4,000 in two years, people can and do volunteer as part time police officers.
For those who want to work for the Met full time as a lead up to becoming a police officer they can join as a PCSO. Both organisations display more diversity than the full time force.
I hear your points but you are wrong.
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