Record 14,508 police officers signed off from work with mental health issues in past year, shocking stats reveal
A RECORD 14,508 police officers have been signed off from work with mental health issues in the past year.
Shock new stats show more cops took time out than ever before for reasons like depression, stress, anxiety and PTSD.
It means around one in 12 bobbies have been off out of the approximate 171,000 working across England, Wales and Scotland.
The figures for the 2023-24 financial year were up nine per cent on the previous 12 months.
And they soared by a staggering 130 per cent from 2012-13 when 6,294 officers were off due to mental health.
Hayley Aley, the Police Federation of England and Wales Co-Lead for Wellbeing, blamed high workloads, low resourcing and repeated trauma exposure.
She said: “At the moment, nobody knows whether an officer is going to a string of traumatic incidents in a week.
“If an officer goes to 10 road deaths in a month, they’re likely to be impacted by that.
“It can’t be right that there aren’t more preventative measures in place so that an officer isn’t overloaded by these incidents.”
Ms Aley hopes the “scary” figures prove “stigma is being eradicated” with cops now more willing to open up about their struggles and seek help.
The Freedom of Information data showed 31 of the 43 forces which responded witnessed an increase in officers signed off for mental health.
West Midlands Police, the UK’s fourth largest force, reported the highest number of absences at 1,128.
The second largest force, Police Scotland, reported 1,110 absences, and Greater Manchester Police had 1,028 officers off work.
Some forces showed alarming increases in mental health absences, especially Cleveland (up 526%) and Dorset (up 343%).
Andy Rhodes, Wellbeing Lead at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “Policing is an extremely fulfilling profession where officers can make a genuine difference to people’s lives and to their communities.
“Sadly the role they play means they can often be faced with some incredibly challenging and hostile situations and over time this can take a toll.
“The recent unprecedented violent disorder saw more than 300 officers physically injured across the country and many more will also be impacted psychologically, although sometimes it may not surface for many years after the incident.”