Thousands of police officers in England and Wales are now working second jobs simply to make ends meet, figures from the Police Federation of England and Wales reveal.
Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows more than 4,000 officers were approved for secondary employment in 2024, double the number recorded in 2019.
The data highlights particularly stark increases in some of the country’s most expensive areas to live, yet the true scale of the problem may be even greater as nine forces – including the Metropolitan Police – refused to supply information.
Paula Dodds, Chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation warned that tired and overworked officers are more likely to make mistakes.
She said: “Officers do an incredibly difficult job every day with extended shifts and little respite. Every officer has an obligation to be fit for duty at the start of each shift but officers are tired, run down and let down by the government. Mistakes will happen when officers are tired when they have not had sufficient rest between tours of duty, spending endless hours at work being compelled to work overtime to meet demands.”
Paula called for a pay increase, along with increased budgets for recruitment and incentivisation schemes to enable officers to work safely and effectively.
She added: “Officers need to be paid in line with other public sectors to be able to live. We have seen a reduction of 21% in pay and it cannot continue. Officers are resorting to secondary employment to ensure they survive and can provide for their families.
“How can the public expect to receive the service they require from officers who are tired and worn out? The Government needs to properly invest in policing.”
Since 2010, police pay has fallen by 21% in real terms. New recruits start on £29,000 a year and after six years’ service their salary still lags up to £10,000 behind that of teachers or nurses with equivalent experience. With inflation and rising interest rates pushing living costs ever higher, many officers feel they have no choice but to seek additional income.
Brian Booth, PFEW Acting Deputy National Chair, said the crisis was a “damning indictment” of successive governments’ failure to address officer pay. He warned that “police officers are overworked, underpaid and under threat” and insisted that “we need pay restoration now and we need chief constables to get off the fence on pay and support their officers”.
He added: “Police officers are overworked, underpaid and under threat. They should not have to finish a shift protecting the public and then work a second job just to pay their bills.”
One officer serving in Wales who asked to remain anonymous described the personal toll of the crisis.
He said: “There was a time when, had I not had other employment, my wife and I would have lost our house. If I didn’t have this second income, it would be very tight. I’ve had to increase my work on the side to make up for the degradation of my police pay over the years. Having a second job has affected my sleep, my diet and my fitness levels, but I’ve had to do it.”
The Federation’s Copped Enough campaign calls on the public to demonstrate support for police by joining the digital picket line: https://www.polfed.org/campaigns/copped-enough/.
