Page 11 - WMPF December-January Magazine.url_Neat

Officers urged Force has

to keep their recruited

almost 300
own insurers The Force had recruited 292 extra
extra officers

informed officers through the Government’s
uplift programme by the end of
September this year, according to

Government statistics issued today.
West Midlands Police was given a
Year 1 allocation of 366 officers as part
of the Government’s plans to recruit
20,000 more officers over a three-year
period.
“Given that the Force had to pretty
much start from a standstill with this
recruitment process given the years of
austerity when recruiting came to a
halt, it is steadily making up ground
and is well on the way to reaching its
target for the first year,” says Steve
Grange, secretary of West Midlands
Police Federation.
“Of course, we welcome these
additional officers but it will be some
time before we truly start to see their
impact in terms of sharing the
fficers are being reminded of their Police Federation and national Federation workload.
obligation to report accidents that lead on pursuits and police driver training. “During the budget cuts, officers
Oarise from incidents while driving “The Federation secured this agreement were stretched to the limit, meeting
police vehicles to their own insurance back in 2013/4 which was most welcome. increased demand with reduced
companies. Many of us are all too aware of the impact resources, and we now need to see a
Due to improved sharing of information any disclosed claim can have on our own sustained and consistent recruitment
between insurers, some officers have been private insurance premiums. programme so that we can get our
encountering difficulties when renewing or “Through the better sharing of numbers back to where they should be
applying for car insurance because a claim information between insurance companies, if we are to provide a high quality
has been recorded on the Claims and however, it is now apparent that officers policing service for our communities.”
Underwriting Exchange (CUE) personal are being challenged by their insurers for National Federation chair John
injury database. not having disclosed accidents by definition Apter, responding to the Government’s
Any recorded incident in which under the Road Traffic Act 1988.” update on the uplift, said more needs
someone is injured or damage occurs will Tim cites one example of such a to be done to attract new police
be stored on the database which means challenge: officer on a P1 call using blue recruits with previous life experience
when an officer seeks a personal car lights and two tones comes to a line of and those from military or public sector
insurance quote, this information will be traffic, in a parting of the waves moment, a backgrounds.
populated automatically. member of the public mounts the He explained: “To have a healthy
Therefore officers should contact their pavement and, through no fault of the mix of new recruits with life experience
insurer if they are involved in any such officer, collides with a lamp post. This is good for policing and essential. We
incident and should declare them when currently is a disclosable accident. will continue to raise this point with
seeking a quote for a new policy. He adds: “We see this as grossly unfair the Home Office. As the programme
An agreement from the Association of and are again actively seeking a further continues, it is also vital for the service
British Insurers means officers do not have exemption to report in circumstances to be more representative and reflect
to report incidents while driving a police pertaining to driver tactics such as the the communities we serve. More needs
vehicle in circumstances where “tactical example given here. You are obliged though to be done to recruit officers from
options” were performed. at this time to report collisions in work Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic
“It was agreed that this was not an vehicles to your own insurance companies. backgrounds.
accident since it was part of the range of Tim is also urging the Force to better “While good progress has been
options and tactics available to police communicate this vulnerability to officers. made, we need to continue to do all we
drivers which enables them to protect the “It’s reasonable for officers to assume can to ensure policing is an attractive
public. It was deemed unfair to have an their liability doesn’t go this far and the profession for all members of the
officer penalised for doing this,” says Tim Force has an obligation to inform them communities we serve.”
Rogers, deputy secretary of West Midlands about this,” he explained.

www.polfed.org/westmids federation December 2020/January 2021 11