More than 2,000 Metropolitan Police officers were signed off work last year due to stress, depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Across the UK, more than 17,700 police officers were signed off for mental health reasons in the financial year 2024-25. This is 22% up on last year and a huge 182% higher than the first survey 12 years ago.
Of the 45 forces that provided figures both this year and last year, 33 reported an increased number of officers being signed off for mental ill health.
Other forces reporting particularly high numbers of absences due to poor mental health include Police Scotland (1,203), Greater Manchester Police (1,050) and West Midlands Police (1,162).
Paula Dodds, Chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the figures were “outrageous” and that chief officers needed to do more to support those who were struggling with poor mental health.
She said: “Quite frankly, the support that officers get is not good enough. The provisions currently in place don’t help officers – we see an average of 400-600 traumatic events in our careers, and there’s no support for that.
“Chief officers need to be held to account and they need to do more. They rely on the Federation or the NHS to support officers and get them through their waiting lists. And it’s just not acceptable.
“Officers need regular screening to make sure they are in a good place mentally. There needs to be trauma training as well, so that every officer can identify if their colleagues are suffering and where they can be signposted to. Because what we can’t have is officers considering suicide. It’s unacceptable.
“Officers are leaving policing because they can’t take it any more. Which then means those officers that remain have an increased workload and witness more trauma.”
These figures are supported by the fact that 81% of respondents told the latest PFEW Pay and Morale Survey that they had experienced feelings of stress, low mood, anxiety or other difficulties with their health and wellbeing over the past 12 months.
Of those people, 93% said their feelings had been caused, or made worse, by work, with ‘workload being too high’ (60%) and ‘having a poor work/life balance’ (51%) being cited as the most common reasons.
