I know that the Police come under fire from the press on a regular basis, and sometimes this is justified, but sometimes it appears that a paper or program have decided to publish an article simply to try to cause damage. Rarely do these things get under my skin, but today is one of those rare days.
The article in question was published by the Mail on Sunday today and attempts to imply that, not satisfied with over inflated salaries and gold-plated pensions, Police officers are busy lining their own pockets with unethical contract work within their own training departments. The headline reads:
Now police are being paid thousands of pounds for second jobs teaching fellow officers to fire tasers
This article relates to officers that have given up their time off to assist in training those involved in the widespread role-out of Taser equipment. Police officers are widely employed within the Police training environment. Initial recruit training, divisional and specialist training, driver and firearms training, all of these departments use officers with their years of experience and knowledge to provide the best quality training for those that require it. Security Editor at the Mail on Sunday, Robert Verkaik, goes on to accuse Police officers of draining the infamous taxpayer-funded Police budgets implying that this spending is unnecessary and part of some financial conspiracy. Verkaik seems to have a bit of a bee in his bonnet about Police officers and their efforts to subsidise their salaries, publishing another article eight days ago which stated that 9,000 officers had second jobs. If our salaries were so good, as is implied by so many in the press, does he not think we would spend our days off with our friends, families or down the pub? Continue reading
