£146,000 a year: new police chief’s salary as residents asked to pay more for services (From Bournemouth Echo)
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£146,000 a year: new police chief’s salary as residents asked to pay more for services
8:30am Friday 8th February 2013 in News
£146,000 a year: new police chief’s salary as residents asked to pay more for services
DORSET’S new chief constable will receive a salary of £146,000 a year, as residents are asked to pay more towards services.
At a meeting of the Police and Crime Panel yesterday, acting chief constable Debbie Simpson was appointed to the role permanently.
She was recommended for the post by Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill, who defended his choice to increase her salary.
Police and Crime Commiss-ioners can increase or decrease a chief constable's salary by up to 10 percent when making a new appointment. The position was advertised as paying £146,370 a year, plus removal/relocation ex-penses and a lease car.
The previous chief constable Martin Baker’s salary was £142,533, topped up with a bonus of £13,169 and car allowance of £4,309.
Some panel members raised concern about the salary hike, including Coun David Smith who said he couldn’t understand why the decision had been made when the rest of the force had had a pay freeze.
Mr Underhill said the decision was a ‘one off’ to attract the best possible candidates that shared his vision for Dorset.
He said: “When I was up for election, I was always asked what my key priority is and I said the chief constable.
“If I don’t have a chief constable who shares my vision for Dorset, then the plan isn’t delivered and the people of Dorset don’t get the policing they deserve.”
Later in the meeting, panel members supported an in-crease in the precept which will see a Band D property pay 7p a week extra – an average increase of £3.51 per year.
The precept is the part of council tax which goes to pay for Dorset Police.
Mr Underhill said it would be a ‘penny a day to keep crime away’, despite calls to reconsider by some members of the panel.
Bournemouth councillors gave a joint statement to the meeting in which they called the rise ‘avoidable and unnecessary’ and rejected the plan.
But Weymouth and Portland Borough councillor Geoff Petherick said he had been impressed with the work already underway in Littlemoor since the commissioner’s appointment and ‘fully supported’ the precept.
The precept was voted for by a majority.
Mr Underhill said this was his ‘one and only’ opportunity to secure a decent budget for Dorset Police, which must still find £10m savings in the coming years.
He said: “At the end of the day, we are the worst funded force by the government in this country and we have received the highest cuts in police officers and staff.”
Comments(23)
Wilkie
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8:51am Fri 8 Feb 13
Hessenford
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8:51am Fri 8 Feb 13
rayc
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9:03am Fri 8 Feb 13
bmthmark
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9:06am Fri 8 Feb 13
Chris@Bmouth
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9:19am Fri 8 Feb 13
rayc
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9:39am Fri 8 Feb 13
Chris@Bmouth wrote:How? The Echo have reported the facts and have not passed comment on the salary one way or another.
Nothing wrong there for the top job. Seems like the Echo is trying to turn this into a flame thread/article as always.
rayc
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9:42am Fri 8 Feb 13
djd wrote:As I understand it from a recent Echo report these are not an extra 12 Officers. They are already serving it is just that the number of reductions will be 12 less.
I don't mind paying the extra for extra police officers but twelve officers will only equate to about three extra on duty in the County at any one time.
As for the Chief Constable, I hope she will be worth her £146,000 per annum. If she is, OK.
yesbut
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9:44am Fri 8 Feb 13
Most workers have to pay their own transport cost to get to work
yesbut
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9:48am Fri 8 Feb 13
Chris@Bmouth
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9:53am Fri 8 Feb 13
rayc wrote:Open your eyes, maybe a little bias. Plus a salary increase of 3,500 pounds - hardly news is it. Relative to inflation, that's a salary cut.
Chris@Bmouth wrote:How? The Echo have reported the facts and have not passed comment on the salary one way or another.
Nothing wrong there for the top job. Seems like the Echo is trying to turn this into a flame thread/article as always.
BmthNewshound
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9:53am Fri 8 Feb 13
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Mr Underhill said the decision was a ‘one off’ to attract the best possible candidates that shared his vision for Dorset....... No one ex-copper looking after another copper
Chris@Bmouth
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10:00am Fri 8 Feb 13
BmthNewshound wrote:You're also forgetting that the article mentions the salary, not the pension - which was probably an astronomical amount before anyway....
"The position was advertised as paying £146,370 a year, plus removal/relocation expenses and a lease car."........ you've forgotten the very generous pension.
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Mr Underhill said the decision was a ‘one off’ to attract the best possible candidates that shared his vision for Dorset....... No one ex-copper looking after another copper
Alumchiner
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10:17am Fri 8 Feb 13
However, there are tens of other senior officers on slightly lower pay - deputy chiefs, assistant chiefs, chief this and chief that who do not need to earn the big money. Get rid of the unnecessary senior management and use that money for street officers - thats what the public want and when they call for help they expect someone to turn up....
abidah
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11:41am Fri 8 Feb 13
Redgolfer
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12:48pm Fri 8 Feb 13
Letcommonsenseprevail
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12:50pm Fri 8 Feb 13
abidah wrote:Oh dear...............s
Disgusting. Tho police are to blame for a high proportion of the crime that is wrongfully attributed or not investigated at all. For example the White case in Wales where wrongfull convictions took place and Jimmy Saville abuse fiasco where the police failed at every available oportunity for over 40 years. Both cases are connected to the local police and the police here as in all areas that I have had dealings with spanning 4 decades are inept at best and corrupt to the core at worse. As an agent employed by them it has been my misfortune to witness the ongoing disgusting behaviour meeted out by agencies such as the police who are supposed to be there to assist the general public not hinder them. As an agent employed by the security services it has been my misfortune to have to work until I nearly drop ferreting out this corruption that pervades the agencies of control only to have been ignored or worse at every step. As an individual member of the public when reporting my own needs I have been subjected to ongoing abuse by the police for my efforts. To read the filthy salaries paid to these people makes me realise how desperately poor this country is and why; the people in control such as the police are milking it.
till, it's nearly the weekend.
muscliffman
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1:33pm Fri 8 Feb 13
We repeatedly see lately that there is evidently no such thing as 'responsibility' in these high powered well rewarded public-sector jobs.
If this post holder were to be held to account for the Dorset Police Forces performance, under risk of summary dismissal without pension or severence deal if it failed, then fair enough.
But we all know from countless examples (an NHS one unfolding right now) that these generously rewarded senior public-sector people are apparently protected form this normal sort of employment reality.
So for such a 'risk' free job as with all the other similar ones, the money does seem way too much.
coster
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1:40pm Fri 8 Feb 13
HRH of Boscombe
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2:41pm Fri 8 Feb 13
bmthmark wrote:That's why you don't have the chance to turn it down. It's not luck I can assure you.
Fair play to her, if I was lucky enough to be given that salary I wouldn't turn it down.
Clunge
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4:51pm Fri 8 Feb 13
rayc wrote:Around 50 retire each year, so for each year without recruitment, the number drops by 50 or so as the older ones are not replaced. The numbers will apparently drop to the level of the 1970's. There is no money and they still need to save £10m by 2015. What the PCC is asking is for some council tax money, to recruit 12 in 2013, so the total loss in 2013 would be 38 not 50. The problem is 50 more will go in 2014, so they will be asking for it again next year, then 50 more in 2015 and so on. Sooner or later every force in the country will need to embark on a large recruitment drive. The student period is 2 years, so if there is no recruitment until 2015 or beyond, it will be 2017 by the time they qualify. By that time Dorset could be policed by 1100 Officers, the internet figure for 2010 was nearer 1400. Take out all the managers and the specialists, divide by shift patterns then reassure yourselves that when you lie in bed at night there is 1 Police Officer on duty for every 5,000 residents of Dorset, at any one time. That's why you rarely see one. Still, the pain is working, the government said so.
djd wrote:As I understand it from a recent Echo report these are not an extra 12 Officers. They are already serving it is just that the number of reductions will be 12 less.
I don't mind paying the extra for extra police officers but twelve officers will only equate to about three extra on duty in the County at any one time.
As for the Chief Constable, I hope she will be worth her £146,000 per annum. If she is, OK.
JDH
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7:05pm Fri 8 Feb 13
This looks more like this Underhill chap is just starting to push his weight around a bit and making sure that everyone understands he is charge and stuff what anyone else thinks. A certain Mr D Cameron keeps saying "we are all in this together". so on that basis as the tax payers who pay their wages have mostly not had pay rises for the last few years, or even pay cuts, it would have better PR for no pay rise. In this country its not what you know, its who you know, and the last few Chief Constables all seem to have quickly moved on to nice well paid quango type jobs, how do we know this one will not do the same after she has made the right contacts?
rayc
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8:31pm Fri 8 Feb 13
JDH wrote:"the last few Chief Constables all seem to have quickly moved on to nice well paid quango type jobs, how do we know this one will not do the same after she has made the right contacts?"
When you are on a salery of £146,000, a good chunk of the extra £3500 will go in tax and NI contributions, so you have to wonder why they bothered to increase it. Is the lady still getting the extra bonus the last one got as well? Bonus for what? If a police officer wanted to be Chief Constable of Dorset for the right reasons, ie to help the public, a difference of £3500 before tax etc will not deter them from applying. As this lady has been doing the job anyway for some months now, you would like to think she has some merits
This looks more like this Underhill chap is just starting to push his weight around a bit and making sure that everyone understands he is charge and stuff what anyone else thinks. A certain Mr D Cameron keeps saying "we are all in this together". so on that basis as the tax payers who pay their wages have mostly not had pay rises for the last few years, or even pay cuts, it would have better PR for no pay rise. In this country its not what you know, its who you know, and the last few Chief Constables all seem to have quickly moved on to nice well paid quango type jobs, how do we know this one will not do the same after she has made the right contacts?
I think you will find that she is already well established in the ACPO so she will have plenty of scope to supplement her income.
djd says...
8:42am Fri 8 Feb 13
As for the Chief Constable, I hope she will be worth her £146,000 per annum. If she is, OK.