British officers being lured overseas by better lifestyle

Police officers are escaping in their droves to work in overseas forces – lured by the lifestyle, cheap accommodation and more respect for the badge.

One foreign police force has had to put a temporary bar on recruiting any more British officers after being inundated with applications.

The Police Superintendents Association has urged the Government to wake up to the problem and look in to more incentives to stop the drain of experienced trained officers leaving the country.

Desperate for recruits Canadian police forces in Edmonton and Calgary aggressively went out to woo experienced officers from the UK. But the one-off recruiting trip to the UK in 2006 was so successful that British expat officers now account for roughly 10 per cent of Calgary’s police service in Alberta.

And its not just Canada which has been targeting UK officers, similar campaigns in New Zealand and Australia attract hundreds of officers overseas each year.

Even the Canadians accept that eventually UK forces will face the same staffing problems and will have to put incentives in place to discourage such departures.

“It’s all about quality of living – that’s the difference,” says Inspector Richard Hinse, who oversees recruiting for the Calgary force. “They’re coming to Calgary to look at our mountains and our blue sky and live in housing that they never could afford in the United Kingdom. That’s the draw.”

More than 137 foreign applicants currently in the system, the service recently announced plans to “temporarily suspend” its international application process.

Constable Jeff Locke, who joined the Calgary force about four years ago after 14 years from the Metropolitan Police, told the Guardian the general lack of respect towards English constables started to wear a little thin.

He said: “You’re dealing with public order situations virtually every week, whether it would be a football game or just working a normal Friday or Saturday night. After a while you do get fed up with that, you really do.”

British police are an ideal fit for Canadian forces, because they speak the same language, have a very similar Criminal Code and are well-versed in community-based policing.

Constable Steve Minarchi with Edmonton’s recruiting branch told the Canadian Press the programme was “somewhat successful”, given the huge quality-of-life and cost-of-living improvement.

He added: “Our fitness tests are tougher and that’s a bit of an issue with a lot of the UK guys. The health/lifestyle that they lead over there isn’t quite the same as probably the North American standard.”

Calgary city still needs to hire about 500 new officers in the next two years, but intends to focus on a “local campaign”.

And Canada’s not the only place where opportunities are aplenty for UK police officers

South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, highlighted the importance of British migrants in their commitment to recruit an extra 400 police officers over four years.

He said: “Rapid recruitment has already boosted police ranks to a record high of 3,993 officers, but we need to keep up our drive to employ more police as well as replace those who leave as part of natural attrition. While our priority is recruiting locally, this is the third time South Australian Police (SAPOL) has undertaken recruiting in the UK.”

The website emigrated.co.uk stated that the New Zealand Police was inundated with responses from British officers when it launched a £25,000 recruitment campaign to fill a shortage of officers in Auckland. An exception was even made for the British recruits, and the officers were employed on talent visas.

However, there is quite a high fall-out rate from transferees with 20 per cent rethinking their plans after a couple of years.

President of the Superintendents Association, Ian Johnston, warned: “I think whilst the pay settlements have been reasonable in recent years they have actually fallen behind inflation and there is no doubt there is