I retired from the police service in 2011, just late enough to experience the effects of austerity (The dirty secret behind Tory ‘crime week’: their policies ruined policing1 September). Historically, police officers had been allowed to work beyond their contracted 30 years, and many did so. However, due to the government’s policy of austerity, a police regulation was used to force out all those officers in my force who had completed their 30 years – the most experienced officers.
At the same time, a moratorium on recruitment was introduced. In addition to losing its most experienced police officers, the police service also lost a lot of its most experienced civilian support staff – analysts, scene-of-crime specialists, and police and community support officers.
