TOP 10 HIGHEST PAID COPS - ARE THEY REALLY WORTH IT??

Should you be near your TV this evening, you might want to watch "Panorama: Because we're worth it - The Taxpayers Rich List", on BBC One Monday 20th September at 2030BST and then available on BBC iPlayer. 

We were contacted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism a few months ago advising that they were preparing this program for Panorama and they were specifically interested in the pay and bonus structures of the Chief Police Officers. 

Readers will not be surprised to learn that Chief Officers feature frequently in the highest paid Rich List the public sector. What should be born in mind though, is that theis program was completed before the 2.5% pay rise that the Chiefs too have enjoyed since September 1st. So even the astronomic figures quoted are understated.

We have shown the TOP 10 HIGHEST PAID police personnel above and would ask the question "Are they really worth this much?" Furthermore, is it right that these highly paid, self serving ACPO ranked officers should have a total say in the pay and conditions of the rank and file?

In a report we will publish over the coming weeks, we will show that even based on basic salary:-

14 Chief Officers are paid a basic of £150,000+
6 Chief Officers are paid between £140 to £150,000 per annum
26 Chief Officers (inc Met Deputies) are paid between £130 and £140,000 per annum.

More than 38,000 government workers are paid over £100,000

In the most detailed analysis of government salaries ever undertaken, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals just how many high earners there are at the top.

More than 38,000 government workers are paid over £100,000, and 9,187 earn more than the Prime Minister (£142,500), according to the Bureau’s public sector pay database.

The findings put an end to the myth that the public sector worker trades high pay for job security and gold plated pensions.

The revelations will also come as a shock to central government, whose best estimate puts the number of high-earners at just 25,000, a miscalculation of more than 50 per cent.

The data also reveals that despite years of legislation and campaigning aimed at achieving gender equality in the public sector, the glass ceiling has hardly cracked, let alone, been smashed.

Among public sector workers paid more than £100,000 only one in five are women.

The Public Sector
The scale and scope of the public sector has exploded since Labour came to power in 1997. Then it employed 5.2 million people, but over the last 13 years that has jumped to 6.1 million.

Pay has ballooned too. The government’s wage bill has jumped 29 per cent in five years to hit £157.7bn. At the top the figures are still more dramatic. The pay for the highest three per cent of public sector jobs has risen by a massive 64 per cent in the past decade.

As the government grapples to restore the country’s battered public finances, it is the public sector that will bear the brunt of the cuts. Already the government is talking of stemming public pay, with pay freezes and cuts to bonus payments.

But critics fear that most of the cost cutting will be made at grassroots level rather than among those at the top – and yet according to this new data Britain’s highest paid public servants cost the country nearly £5bn a year.

According to Cabinet Office Minister Sir Frances Maude: “You don’t need to pay stupendous amounts to get good people. You can square the circle of having really good people not on telephone number salaries and massive built in bonuses. That public service ethos is very important.”

Every sector is represented from fire fighters to police chiefs, army bosses to teachers, doctors, civil servants and quango directors, regulators and council heads, with many sectors paying hundreds, if not thousands of staff more than the £142,500 paid to their ultimate boss, the Prime Minister. The National Health Service (NHS) alone pays nearly 6,500 employees more than David Cameron.

The prime minister and his cabinet took the 5% pay cut when they formed the government at a time of record deficits and a sluggish economy.

In collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Panorama requested pay details from most of the UK's publicly funded organisations, including local authorities, schools, universities, the BBC, the NHS and the government agencies known as quangos.

When the Government start applying the fiscal scalpel to policing, they should start at the top.


THERE ARE TOO MANY CHIEFS. MANY OF THEM ARE PAID TOO MUCH.

THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH INDIANS AT THE FRONTLINE OF POLICING.

THESE ARE FUNDAMENTAL BASICS. THE GOVERNMENT MUST REVERSE THIS PROFLIGATE TREND IF THERE IS TO BE ANY HOPE OF RESTORING FAITH IN THE SERVICE, MORALE IN THE TROOPS AND CONFIDENCE IN THE LEADERSHIP OF THE SERVICE.

TOO MANY POLICE CHIEFS - PART 2 - THE BONUS SCANDAL

Following our article earlier this week  "Too many Police Chiefs" we would like to introduce you to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism,  that is looking to lift the lid off exhorbitant public sector bonus payments, including those of the most senior of our police officers. 

The arrival of a new Liberal/Tory Government committed to opening the books of public sector profligate spending has resulted in Senoir Police Chiefs hitting the headlines this week, protesting that the gravy train bonus scheme they have enjoyed was "forced upon them". 

A delegation of chiefs has told Theresa May that bonuses are not part of the country's "policing culture" and should be dumped. They said the system of making special payments was imposed on police despite concerns that private sector remuneration was not suitable for their unique role.

Where were the protestations and signs of dissent when the bonuses were introduced? For at least 5 or 6 years many of these fat cats have gleefully jumped aboard the gravy train and happily taken their millions in this orchestrated, deceitful practice.

The Bureau website explains their raison d'etre:-

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is an independent, not-for-profit body that aims to produce the highest quality investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work will be on stories of significance – stories with clear issues at their heart.

Our journalistic ambition is to expose the exploitation of the weak by the strong. We will seek to reveal the failures of those in power to fulfil the trust placed in them. And we will be led by the ambition that, through revelation, real and positive change might occur.

We will do this impartially and apolitically, governed by the highest standards of journalistic independence. The Bureau will not lobby. Nor will we align ourselves with political parties or pressure groups.

Our stories, and our stories alone, will define us.

Focus

The focus of the Bureau will be on government and business: we will shine a light into their powerful worlds and on any abuses therein.

From flaws in the judicial system, to political profiteering, to human rights abuses on the production line, to corrupt arms deals, we will seek to reveal the facts that otherwise would remain hidden.

We will also focus on other powerful institutions, such as unions, religious groups, lobbyists, universities, hospitals and the media itself if they are seen to be abusing the public trust.

Our journalism will be patient and persistent. We will expose inappropriate practices, hold them up to public scrutiny and we will continue to do so until change comes about.

As such, we will stay with the issues. As long as there is more to be told, or there are more people to inform, we will persevere.

The following is an extracted adaptation from their website that is particulalry relevant to our recent report.  

Secret policemen's bonuses

May 21st, 2010

Why are so many police forces refusing to provide details of the bonuses paid to their chief constables?

 Regulations under the Local Government Statue no 3322, will compel every force to publish all remuneration details of their highest paid staff, including amounts spent on expenses and bonuses in their next accounts.

 The Bureau have been investigating bonuses within the police force for several months. Using Freedom of Information requests they have asked each of the 43 constabularies about such payments to their senior officers.

No answer
 Many forces have refused to provide the details about this contentious issue. (See the table below)

In an attempt to force the police to provide the information the Bureau went to the Information Commission. They discovered that others had already brought the issue to the ICO, but no decision had been made.

No information
 The Bureau pressed further.

They wanted to know how many complaints had been made but we were told that to obtain this information they would need to send in an FOI request to the Information Commissioner.

It is clear the police are being anything but transparent. 
 
Hidden payments 
 
This is all the greater a concern when you realise that the police receive ‘extra payments’, often undisclosed.

 These include mortgage payments private health insurance, private car costs, private school fees, honorarium payments and private membership of clubs.

 These extra payments are above and beyond the current national pay scales that have been centrally determined by the Police Negotiating Body (PNB), and remain not properly regulated.

 Bonus payments are in the spotlight. Keeping them secret is only going to make them more contentious.
 Good Cop, Bad Cop

We have provided the Bureau with an advance copy of our report "Too Many Police Chiefs" containing details of senior officer pay and a comprehensive analysis of police expenditure and costs to assist with their efforts.
 
A full copy of our 100+ page report will be available from these pages shortly.
 
Meanwhile, Senior Officers will undoubtedly continue the media charade that they were forced to accept such payments, that they were forced to create and implement barmy schemes that have obstructed front line coppers from doing the real job for so long. Do they really expect the public to be taken in?
 
The sense of public outrage that followed the MP expense scandal looks set to be eclipsed by the TOP COP PAY & CRIME SCANDAL. When the enormity of profligate waste and spending some of these officers have been responsible for, emerges as it surely must, it will be interesting to see how many times. the lame explanation of  "We were told to do it" is trotted out. Front line officers have long since remarked that there are Too Many Chiefs. Perhaps the prospect of force mergers may provide the natural solution.
 
Well done to those at the Bureau, stick with it chaps!