COPPED ENOUGH


large forces such as West Midlands and Greater Manchester also carrying significant backlogs. Even smaller forces show disproportionately high averages per officer, underlining that this is a national issue, not an isolated one. National Secretary John Partington


said: “Officers are being called in on rest days for public order deployments, court attendance and essential duties, often at short notice. The result is a service that is increasingly dependent on officers forfeiting time that is meant to protect their health and wellbeing.”


the Federation argues that policing’s greatest risks are no longer adequately captured by traditional definitions of workplace harm.


“The exclusion of work- related stress and suicide from reporting structures risks creating a dangerous blind spot.”


THE HIDDEN IMPACT ON MENTAL HEALTH The loss of rest days is not simply about tiredness. It is about cumulative psychological strain. Rest days are the primary opportunity for officers to decompress, process trauma and regain balance. When they are repeatedly cancelled, stress does not dissipate; it accumulates. Policing is already defined by high workloads, sustained exposure to trauma and intense organisational pressure, with harm often arising from prolonged stress rather than single incidents. Removing rest opportunities compounds those risks and is likely to contribute to fatigue, emotional exhaustion and burnout. Over time, this creates a cycle where officers remain in a constant state of heightened stress without the chance to reset. The Federation’s wellbeing data


illustrates the seriousness of those pressures. Between 2022 and 2025, 75 officers died by suicide, with 62.7 per cent known to be under investigation at the time. While no single factor can explain such outcomes, the evidence shows a clear association between organisational stressors and acute mental health risk. Without adequate time to recover, one of the few safeguards available to officers is diminished, which increases the likelihood that stress becomes cumulative and, in some cases, critical.


BEYOND TRADITIONAL MEASURES OF HARM


This is where the issue goes deeper. In its response to the Health and Safety Executive’s consultation on RIDDOR,


National Board member and Health and Safety Lead, Richie Murray, said: “Current frameworks focus on ‘physical accidents’. But in modern policing, the most serious dangers often come from how work is organised as result of excessive


workload, fatigue, trauma exposure and organisational pressures. “The exclusion of work-related stress


and suicide from reporting structures risks creating a dangerous blind spot. It means the cumulative effects of lost rest, relentless demand and high- pressure processes are not being fully recognised within the systems designed to prevent harm.”


COPPED ENOUGH: ONE CAMPAIGN, ONE REALITY The significance of Hands Off Our Rest Days becomes clear when viewed through the lens of Copped Enough. This national campaign was launched


to expose a broader crisis related to pay, working conditions and wellbeing. It has since become a unifying voice for officers across the country. It highlights a workforce that is overworked, under- valued and facing increasing difficulty sustaining a long-term career in policing. At its core, Copped Enough is about fairness, retention and officer safety. Rest days sit at the heart of all three. Without adequate rest:


• Morale declines as work-life balance deteriorates


• Experienced officers are more likely to leave


Pressure does not disappear, it concentrates on those who remain.


DRAWING A LINE The Federation has been clear that weakening rest day protections would only deepen an already critical situation. At a time when officers are owed hundreds of thousands of days off, proposals that make it easier to cancel or dilute those protections risk


05 | POLICE | JUNE | 2026


entrenching a culture where recovery is treated as optional. Instead, the focus must be on


addressing the underlying pressures driving demand and recognising that officer wellbeing is not separate from operational effectiveness — it is fundamental to it.


PUTTING WELFARE AT THE CENTRE


The message is clear. Rest days, work- load, mental health and organisational pressure are not separate challenges. They are interconnected parts of the same system. Protecting rest days is about more than preserving time off. It is about safeguarding the resilience of the workforce, maintaining standards of service, and preventing harm before it occurs.


The Copped Enough campaign has already shifted the national conversation. The task now is to translate that momentum into lasting change ensuring that officers are not expected to carry an ever-growing burden without the time and support they need to recover. Because policing cannot continue


to rely on sacrifice alone. And officers, quite simply, have copped enough.


Support the campaign, sign the digital picket line: https://forms. office.com/Pages/DesignPageV2. aspx?origin=NeoPortalPage&subp age=design&id=IJTX9mriHUe68V2 9n-n68x6or_


• Fatigue undermines performance and decision-making


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