Once again the Daily Fail that police hating news paper has criticised police forces and its officers for receiving "macabre bonuses for dealing with dead bodies"
Daily Mail Article Click Here
They state "Families of victims of accidents and crime are likely to be horrified that officers are profiting for dealing with dead bodies"
How the Daily Mail can claim families are likely to be horrified that officers are "profiting" is quite frankly disgusting, speculating and unevidenced.
I can just as easily state that maybe the families are happy that the police force concerned dealt with the death and the delivery of the sad news with utmost professionalism and dignity and that a few extra pounds is worth the shock and horror of dealing with a particularly nasty end. I have no evidence for this just as the Mail will state that families will be horrified but with the experience I have had with families I have the edge.
I can also with justification state with my 10 years experience of dealing with death and destruction that any officer that deals with this would rather not have the money or have the death in the first place.
I have seen aspects of death like many other police officers that would make a desk bound journalist scream and run. So to be told by the Mail that we are profiting from this, is quite frankly, an insult.
I have never had in my numerous incidents involving a death where I have either had to search, fingerprint, collect body parts, discover, remove the body or identify a body, collected any bonus or reward. Nor I will add, have any of my colleagues.
I have heard of this practice but yet to meet any officer who has or indeed, want to collect this "bonus"
The Mail goes on to say that officers dealing with unpleasant crimes can receive £500 totalling an estimated £100,000 a year when all other bonuses are scrapped. It then states that train drivers when they witness suicides do not get bonuses, paramedics nor firefighters get bonuses when they have to handle dead bodies.
Train drivers who witness suicides, as unfortunate as it may be are entitled to claim compensation, its not automatic. However, they are not the person who has to pick up the pieces, identify, sit with, and deal with the family. As tragic as it is for the driver you can say the same for anyone who kills someone whether they be in a train, lorry, car. They are a witness first and foremost. If that is the case what about all the unfortunate witnesses who saw a person jump in front of a train and witnessed the body destroyed?
Police officers are for law enforcement. Yes there is going to be death but if you are a Paramedic or Firefighter, then with no disrespect, you do not go into the job without expecting to deal with a dead and badly disrupted body.
I know a few police officers who are lucky to be in their service and not yet have to deal with a death. These officers have told me that they are worried because they have not dealth with a death and if and when they do, how they will cope.
So to say it is expected for police officers to deal with death is once again arrogantly assuming that the police are becoming a one stop shop for all to deal with.
We are keepers of the peace, social workers, truant officers, marriage guidance, bouncers, undertakers, firefighters, life savers and targets for abuse when all is wrong with the country.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, vowed to quiz Home Secretary Theresa May over the issue this week.
He said: ‘I would have thought that dealing with these matters were part of the job and did not require additional payments.’
Yet, today, on Twitter, Mr Vaz tweeted a reply to me and said
@Keith_VazMP
@ResponsePlod. An element for this should be in basic pay not in a bonus. Police pay has been in effect reduced in the last 5 years.
If this is "Part of the job and did not require additional payments" why should it be added as part of the salary?
Why should officers who work behind the scenes (in equally important roles) be paid the additional in their basic pay and not have to deal with the trauma that the officers attending a scene have dealt with?
Criminal justice expert Harry Fletcher added: ‘It’s traumatic for anybody to deal with a fatality and the best way forward is to provide counselling rather than a pot of money. Most victims’ relatives would rather emergency services were given counselling than paid extra.’
I have to agree with this. As stated before, I have not received any extra money so if it goes into a pot to assist people I would not miss it. With the number of deaths I have dealt with, some very nasty I can safely state that I have only been "debriefed" twice.
In case anyone has forgotten, especially the Daily Mail. Police Officers are HUMAN with feelings and emotions like anyone else! Death effects us all. We put on a professional face but deep inside we are hurting, especially if it involves a child.
How do you know that the officer delivering your death message or picking up the pieces of a road crash, explosion, train suicide hasn't themself just returned from a tragedy of their own.
For an MP to call upon the Home Secretary to review this practice is laughable and an insult when MPs live in a different world to the rest of us, a world of 15% voted in pay rises, low pension contributions, second houses and crazy claims for expenses such as toilet seats, cleaning for moats etc.
However, it's easier and easier these days to attack those that cannot defend themselves or claim to know or judge something you cannot or will not do yourself.
And as for the Daily Mail to say that police are "simply handling dead bodies" I say this:
Police.....Could you?
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