Now Met chief demands 10% pay increase for crisis-hit force

Met chief says force could be 1,000 officers short without big pay increase

- Martin Bentham

MET officers should be given a near 10 per cent pay rise, Sir Mark Rowley said today as he warned that his force is to miss its target for boosting numbers because of the difficulty in finding new recruits.

The Met Commissioner said he feared the force — which was originally hoping to boost its officer numbers to 36,500 as part of the Government’s 20,000 nationwide increase in police numbers — would “be up to 1,000 officers short” by April, when the target was due to be met. He said the reason was that the “pool of potential candidates is reducing” and that a big increase in police pay “that is close to the current rate of inflation” was needed to attract recruits and ensure that talented officers stayed with the Met.