Police receive bonuses just for doing their daily job
Police are being paid bonuses totalling more than £150 million a year for what officers admit is “just doing their job”, according to figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph.
Individual officers are receiving tens of thousands of pounds a year in “incentive” payments, disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act [FOI] show.
Amid growing anger over bonus payments in the public sector, the figures disclose that performance bonuses for superintendents, who earn around £70,000 a year, are worth an annual £2.5 million and have risen by 70 per cent since 2007 in some forces.
Bonus payments across all ranks have risen six per cent over the past three years.
The extra payments were introduced in 2002 by David Blunkett, the home secretary at the time, to offer incentives for performance. Five types of bonus are available, including extra payments for officers who show “professional competence” or carry out “demanding work”.
But the awards have been called anathema to policing by one senior officer and “a bonus for doing your duty” by the leader of the country’s rank-and-file officers. They have also been blamed for encouraging senior officers to concentrate on the pursuit of targets.
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