‘Forced out’ police officers urged to return – as unpaid volunteers

Six retired officers, all with more than 30 years experience with West Midlands Police, said they had been sent letters asking them to return in similar roles but as volunteer special constables.

Martin Heard, who was forced to retire at the end of March after 32 years with the force, said he was shocked when he was asked to consider coming back to do the same job for free.

Two weeks after being forced to leave, he said, “I was shocked. On one hand they’re saying they don’t need me, and then they’re asking me to come back in the same role.”

Mr Heard is one of up to 630 officers from the force who could be affected by the controversial plan as part of efforts to save tens of millions of pounds in the wake of Government spending cuts.

Tony Fisher, who was forced to retire as a detective specialising in tackling robbery, said: “I was a detective for 26 years and I just don’t see how that role fits in any way as a special constable.

“It’s a bit of a slap in the face to get rid of you and then say do you want to come back for nothing. It was adding salt to the wounds.”

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, said: “You couldn’t make this up.”

She added: “Is this the Government’s idea of Big Society – doing policing by volunteers? This shows the Government’s plans are a joke and are putting communities at risk.

At least 13 police authorities have chosen to implement regulation A19, which says officers who have served 30 years or more can be “required to retire” if their retention would “not be in the general interests of efficiency”.

North Yorkshire is the only force in the region to have adopted A19 but a spokeswoman confirmed there was no current plan to use the power.

All four regional forces – North, South and West Yorkshire, plus Humberside – are preparing to shed more than 2,000 posts next year as they begin the task of overcoming a £200m budget shortfall by 2015. They said they had not asked any officers who had retired voluntarily to return as special constables.

Police funding is set to fall by 20 per cent over the next four years and a total of 3,260 officers could be affected by plans to implement regulation A19, according to figures released last November.

In the Commons, Labour leader Ed Miliband, MP for Doncaster North, accused David Cameron of “broken promises on policing”.

Mr Cameron responded: “We see in case after case there are far too many police officers in back-office jobs doing paperwork and carrying out corporate development work who should be on the front line.

“Responsible chief constables are getting these police officers out on the front line to fight crime and crime under this Government is falling.”

Six West Midlands officers met the Home Secretary to discuss their concerns yesterday and afterwards issued a statement which said: “Theresa May listened intently to everything we had to say and all of our concerns but she didn’t take responsibility, instead she washed her hands and put all of the blame on Chief Constables who have been left to manage the cuts.”