Met steals Sussex coppers

London’s Metropolitan Police Service [Met] has been accused of selfishness for bribing experienced officers with a one-off golden hello of £5,000 to leave surrounding forces and go to work in London.

Together with a London weighting payment of £6,000 this adds up to salaries that local forces just can’t match. But despite the inducement the Met is still struggling to reach its target of 4,500 new officers before March 2023.

Katy Bourne, Police & Crime Commissioner for Sussex, said; “This is the Met putting their own internal targets ahead of other forces and (their) concerns about community safety. It will do nothing for net recruitment (of the total target of 20,000 officers) and just makes the whole system more expensive”

She went on to say: “It completely reflects the dysfunctionality in the Met and a culture of putting their own force ahead of the public good”.

Some commentators have suggested that the move could backfire with existing Met officers resenting new recruits getting a cash sum that they did not.