Morale within the Metropolitan police force is starkly low, according to one senior figure within the Met.
Deputy General Secretary & Public Order Lead Simon Hill revealed that 71% of respondents within the Met had reported low or very low morale in a recent survey conducted within the force. The survey also revealed 96% of respondents felt that morale was low or very low within the force.
Hill was responding to questions from London Assembly Deputy Chair Gareth Roberts, at the monthly Police and Crime Committee. When Hill was asked about the levels of exhaustion reported by officers, following a long summer of large events, protests, and demonstrations, all requiring public order policing, he cited the 2023 survey conducted by the Police Federation of England and Wales, the union of all police officers within England and Wales.
Asked what support officers were given, Hill described the Met as “a challenging place”. He further described the impacts of ongoing high profile police misconduct cases, stating it was “hard to build officers up amidst and underlying current of cases”. Nevertheless, he stated that whilst the Met are very good at involving the Federation, “many things are outside the control of the Met”.
Commander, Major Operations and Public Order, Louise Padfoot added that welfare is always offered to police at events, offering refreshments or transport home following long shifts. She criticised media scrutiny, in particular social media posts containing clips filmed buy the public and “taken out of context”.
The issue of morale was one of many subjects raised at the committee, which was examining the state of public order policing within the capital. The low morale was linked to wider issues facing this sector, including officers opting out of public order training, thus preventing them from being deployed at public events. The incentive structure for this training was also highlighted as a contributing factor. The only incentives noted to opting in to this training were career progression, and the “excitement” of policing large events.
The annual pay and morale survey is conducted by the Police Federation of England and Wales, probing its members views on the realities of policing. The 2023 survey was completed by 29,085 officers.