More Thames Valley Police officers seeking second jobs due to cost of living crisis

The force’s head of vetting and security Sue Murphy provided the update on how police officers have coped with soaring food and energy bills in a new report.

Her findings about moonlighting within the force were presented to the Thames Valley Police and Crime Panel last week.

They read: “Where we used to see ‘hobby’ type roles, we are seeing more staff and officers wishing to work actual second jobs we believe due to the cost of living and high cost of housing in Thames Valley.”

The reasons for second jobs are generally ‘to create further income to support family and high cost of living’, the report added.

Officers are allowed to work second jobs under the permitted business interests outlined in the Police Regulations.

However, business interests must not interfere with an officer’s ability to ‘impartially discharge their duties’.

Murphy’s report stated that there has been an increase in work for the team handling business interests due to the ‘continuous turnover of staff within the organisation’.

It also warned of the potential risk of an ‘exhausted workforce’ as more staff chose to opt out of the working time directive – the law that normally limits a person’s working week to 48 hours.

The report added that the force was ‘carefully monitoring’ the situation, especially staff who have business interests and take ‘excessive sick periods’.

The same panel also heard how the force was rejecting more applicants in the wake of high profile cases where police force staff carried out serious crimes.