 have written to the Home Secretary to warn her that recruits are spending so much time studying under the new all-graduate system that up to 10 per cent of their officers are stuck in classrooms rather than on the frontline fighting crime. They are urging her to change the regulations so that police forces can still use the 'traditional' training route under which new bobbies are on the beat after just 20 weeks' initial police college training and are not required to spend so much time in the classroom. They say they are losing out on new recruits from the military, officers who have worked as special constables or PCSOs and older people without a degree seeking a career change. 'We are turning away good people' Matthew Scott, police and crime commissioner for Kent, who organised the letter, said: 'We are turning away perfectly good people because we have decided you need a degree to be a police officer. There are many fine police officers who have never had a degree.' It is believed Ms Braverman is sympathetic to the request and is concerned about the 'over-academisation' of policing. The call for flexibility by the PCCs is understood to be backed by a number of chief constables. It comes at a critical time when forces are seeking to hit their recruitment targets in the last year of the 20,000-officer uplift in England and Wales. There are also concerns within some of the 43 police forces in England and Wales about their age profile with so many young, inexperienced officers. Kent is among a number of forces already allowed a dispensation by the College of Policing, the professional body for training, to continue recruiting some officers in the traditional way in order to hit its year target of 195. It has to recruit not){kind=link}
Suella Braverman urged to ditch blanket requirement for officers to have degrees to stop forces missing out on experienced recruits
More than a third of policing chiefs are urging Suella Braverman to ditch the blanket requirement for all officers to have degrees to stop forces missing out on veterans and older, experienced recruits.
Sixteen police and crime commissioners (PCCs) have written to the Home Secretary to warn her that recruits are spending so much time studying under the new all-graduate system that up to 10 per cent of their officers are stuck in classrooms rather than on the frontline fighting crime.
They are urging her to change the regulations so that police forces can still use the “traditional” training route under which new bobbies are on the beat after just 20 weeks’ initial police college training and are not required to spend so much time in the classroom.
They say they are losing out on new recruits from the military, officers who have worked as special constables or PCSOs and older people without a degree seeking a career change.