Thin blue line all too costly

Yet the huge cost of financing this overtime – an astonishing £4bn nationally over the past decade – has to be brought under control. And ironically, according to many police officers in this region, dwindling staff numbers – caused by Government demands for budget cuts – will actually lead to overtime bills soaring further. It is also the case that much of the cost of overtime is out of police hands, according to Stuart Donald, assistant chief constable of Humberside, with officers frequently kept waiting by red tape, or a lack of available solicitors or doctors. Yet solicitors, not surprisingly, deny this.

Instead of arguing the toss, however, it would be better if police officers and solicitors both managed to organise themselves better. For with time being highly costly in both these professions, it is difficult to see why they cannot simply make proper appointment times with each other and keep to them.

It is precisely because there are so many valid reasons why police officers should build up overtime that the public does not want to be fobbed off with excuses.

On the face of it, yes, cuts in staff numbers might be thought to result in extra hours worked by those remaining. Yet the fact that the overtime bill doubled over the past decade, a time when the number of officers nationally grew to more than 142,000, suggests that inefficient management played its part and that the rise was not merely down to extra demands on police time.

However, if managers are to have any credibility when negotiating with Ministers about the imminent changes to police pay and conditions, they have to show that they are able to keep costs down.