OFFICER SUPPORT
END THIS CRISIS FOR COPS
With six forces in special measures, Channel 4’s Dispatches programme reveals a service and officers at breaking point
The thin blue line is broken along with the police officers holding it, a grim Channel 4 Dispatches programme has demonstrated. ‘Cops in Crisis’ has laid bare the reality of policing, with police officers struggling to meet demand and the service deteriorating under a significant lack of investment.
Impossible workloads and demand outstripping resources was a strong theme throughout the programme in addition to the assaults officers faced. The outcome of this theme is often seen in victims being failed. More than half a million reported crimes were screened out last year, research from C4 revealed, whilst detection rates have fallen over the past five years, with just 5.6 per cent of crimes resulting in a
36 | POLICE | FEBRUARY 2023
charge or summons. Claire, a former detective sergeant on a specialist child protection team, became ill and retired due to the nature of the role impacting her mental health severely, with her department massively understaffed. “Quite often I would look around and someone would have their head in their
“Quite often I would look around and someone would have their head in their hands, and someone would be crying”
hands, and someone would be crying,” she told Dispatches. “We gave everything, but we are not robots, we are human beings. “We had screenings and a wellbeing questionnaire, then there would be a score, and if you were under a certain point
occupational health would come and see you. I failed them every time, and my colleagues failed them too. “I went into work, and it was really busy. I remember looking at my colleague thinking, ‘I can’t hear you; I can’t hear what you’re saying’. I looked at the computer screen and the letters and words
were jumping everywhere. I started crying and couldn’t stop. “I went home and cried for the whole weekend – I felt like I was letting everyone down. I contemplated suicide quite a few times.”
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