A police and crime commissioner (PCC) has slammed the Metropolitan Police’s new recruitment campaign, which offers a £5,000 extra to experienced officers from other forces, as “selfish” and “poaching.”
The PCC for Kent, which is bordered by the London force, has requested the Met to rescind its lucrative offer.
‘The failure of the Met Police to recruit will now be felt in neighbouring police forces as they selfishly seek to poach our experienced and trained officers to meet their own targets,’ he said.
‘Policing works best when we work together, but clearly the Met is not co-operating here.’
If experienced officers transfer to the London force, they will get a one-time bonus of £5,000 from the Met Police.
Police forces across England and Wales are recruiting in order to fulfill the government’s goal of 20,000 more officers by March 2023.
The Kent PCC, on the other hand, has urged the Met and London Mayor Sadiq Khan to avoid using bonus payments to try to recruit experienced officers from other forces.
Commissioner Scott, along with other PCCs, has written to London Mayor Boris Johnson, expressing their displeasure with the capital’s actions.
The letter says: ‘The most disturbing of these proposals is the £5000 payment to incentivise police officers to transfer from their current forces into the Metropolitan Police.
‘All forces have their own uplift target to achieve and we are all operating in a competitive employment market within the South-East that presents challenges for us all.
‘As Police and Crime Commissioners for forces where we all met our uplift target last year, it is notable that the Metropolitan Police failed to hit its recruitment target and yet still received full funding from the Home Office.
‘This was a financial option not made available to any other force. Given the imbalance of funding that already exists between the Met and other forces, the use of this additional income to encourage transferees from neighbouring forces is therefore particularly offensive and short-sighted.’
‘I have always maintained that officers should be better paid, but there must be a level playing field across all forces,’ Commissioner Scott added.
9,400 people have decided to become Met police officers in the last three years, helping the force reach 33,567 officers in March, the largest number on record.
The Metropolitan Police Service now expects to hire 4,000 more officers through the National Police Uplift Programme by March 2023.
After Covid, the Met claims that the London job market is improving, with more job opportunities and fewer job searchers, as well as’more of our officers deciding to retire.’
Clare Davies, director of resources at the Met Police, stated: ‘Our growth is helping us achieve positive results in driving down violent crime and bolstering our presence in town centres and in neighbourhoods across London.
‘The additional measures we have introduced are all targeted at making the Met competitive in the London job market at a time when all police forces and a number of other sectors are recruiting.
‘We will be doing everything we can whilst we have the funding to encourage the best of the best to join us. We will also continue to press hard for a fair pay award for all our officers so that we remain an attractive employer.’