Police pay: marching to May's beat

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/15/police-pay-may-beat

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Even in hard economic times, a headline announcing that police pay is about to be cut by £4,000 comes as a bit of a stunner. All the more so when the wielder of the axe is an unapologetic Conservative home secretary and the decision is met with more sorrow than anger by the Police Federation. Truly, it seems, we live in a new era.

It is hard not to feel that Tuesday's decision by Theresa May on police pay, expected though it was, marks the crossing of a notable watershed. It is important for police officers – that much is obvious. But it also important because it draws the line under a bankrupt 35-year deception of the public over police pay and police numbers for which both major parties bear a share of responsibility.

The absence of a full-on political storm over Mrs May's acceptance of the pay recommendations of the police arbitration tribunal (PAT) can be largely explained by the fact that the headline is not the whole story. It is not serving officers but prospective recruits who face the largest cut in income. Not all recruits will lose out by £4,000 either – only those with no police experience. Those with some experience will start at a higher entrance level, while opportunities to move quickly up the revised pay scale will mean that many officers will benefit in the not too long run from the restructuring that is emerging from Tom Winsor's two reports of 2011 and 2012. The relatively muted response may also reflect a change in federation leadership. The fact that the federation has often argued in the past that the home office should accept PAT rulings, which is what Mrs May has now done, also plays to the home secretary's advantage.

Underlying all this is a recognition across the service and, to a lesser extent, within politics, that the old system had run out of road. Ever since the late 1970s, politicians have been telling the public that the answer to Britain's crime and disorder problems is to recruit more officers and to pay them more. Taking their cue from Margaret Thatcher, the parties vied with one another to do just that. Naturally, the police made no complaint. But these claims were not based on fact, and the policing system became headcount and pay-heavy as well as inefficient.

The coalition deserves considerable credit for tackling this mismatch, and for its willingness to confront the old culture. The Winsor reports are important documents in the history of policing, and the implementation of their recommendations is at the core of a necessary reform strategy. Though Labour warned of dangers on Tuesday, the party's refusal to condemn Mrs May is a quiet admission that she is working on the right lines and is reforming the police in ways that even her opponents suspect – rightly – are necessary.