Continuing on the topic of global law enforcement issues, you may or may not be aware of the brewing crisis in the United Kingdom. The 2.5% pay raise for the national police force was recently approved with a discrepancy: the raise wasn’t retroactive to the fiscal year, meaning instead of a 2.5% pay raise officers got only a 1.9% pay raise. The inflation rate over there is 2.5%, and math types will tell you that this actually amounts to a pay cut. To add insult to injury, the clandestine pay cut only applies to police officers in England and Wales while the Scottish constabulary’s raise is retroactive and matches the inflation rate.
The British police are even talking about striking. While this is far from a possibility due to the stout and noble character of the British police force, it is an indication of the dire nature of the circumstances across the pond. The British and Welsh police have every right to a pay raise that matches A) the Scottish raise, and B) the inflation rate. Police in the United Kingdom deal with an underclass that has no respect for the law. I’ve referenced this before, and I still think that police officers in the U.K. should be trained in the use of and be issued firearms individually. This will only partially help, because the police in the U.K. are also woefully understaffed. For further information on this developing situation, and some great entertainment as well, check out the Police Inspector’s Blog which I recently discovered.
To top it all off, the slighted bobbies get to sit back and watch while the British government approves an additional £7,000,000,000 or so for London’s 2012 Olympic budget. Clearly, the U.K. needs to get its priorities in order.
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