The Live Wire



Press Release

HMIC report spawns new urban myths

20 July 2010

Some wonderful new urban myths have been spawned by the HMIC report 'Valuing the Police'.

The first is that there are more police on the streets on a Monday morning than there are on a Saturday night.

There are not.

There are certainly more community support officers – who are, of course, civilians – walking around during the week than after dark on a Saturday.
It is also true that there are, overall, more police on duty during the week than there are at weekends – ACPO ranks, for example, will be at their desks on Monday morning but will usually be snug at home on Saturday nights.

Other officers will be engaged in vital support functions which can only be performed during the week when partner organisations in the public and private sector are open for business.

But there will be the same number of front-line warranted police officers on the streets on a Saturday night – and often more ¬ – as there will on a Monday.

The second myth is that police officers spend more time holidaying than they do working.

If you examine the number of days worked by certain officers, the arithmetic seems to bear this fallacy out. But if you look at the number of hours worked, a completely different picture emerges.

Response officers in the London borough of Camden, for example, work 12-hour shifts sometimes for four consecutive days (total hours worked: 48) and sometimes for five (total hours worked: 60).

The long shifts clearly take these officers well over the equivalent of a 40-hour week – so they will be given a suitable number of rest days to compensate and, hence, the deceptively large number of days off.

Of course, as the Home Office seeks cuts in the Police Service, these are myths which they want to see fostered.



Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.

Metropolitan Police Federation

Metropolitan Police Federation

More from Dods

© Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd