What Is The Problem With The Police Federation?

DES KEENOY 

We’ve heard a lot of questions about the Police Federation lately. Theresa May told its conference in Bournemouth last week that the organisation would have to reform “top to bottom,” or else.

To many the federation can seem an opaque yet powerful body.

I was a federation representative for 24 years and it can be a complex, difficult and onerous as well as powerful and influential position.

It is usually a job, at the lowest level at least, that no-one else wants, as it interrupts your private life and can also interrupt your career progress.

Few understand how the federation arose outside of the mainstream of the trade union movement.

To answer this let’s step back to 1918 and 1919. The Great War was at an end. The Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and German empires had fallen in a confused heap of recrimination amid the spectre of communism and the nascent seeds of fascism were in the air.

The winners, the British empire and its allies, were faced with the return of millions of war-weary and cynical soldiers, themselves the survivors of an unrecognised step change in methods of waging war.

The Establishment was absolutely aghast at the possibility that Bolshevism and its demands would return with the troops.

Back on the home front, after years of low pay and disregard, the police and prison officers were on strike.

Chaotic and inconsistent pay, usually less than that of an agricultural worker, families claiming poor relief, no decent pensions at all and the disrespect of the upper classes as a given had brought them to this action.

Savage discipline and low pay were the root cause, but it is true to say that there was a great deal of union activity in the country as a whole during this period, adding to the febrile response of the government of the day.

A successful strike in 1918, followed by another in 1919, led to better pay and conditions and the establishment of the Desborough inquiry.

This was generally favourable towards the officers’ claims. While the leaders of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers (NUPPO) thought they had de facto been recognised by the settlement, this was not the view of the new Commissioner for the Metropolis, serving soldier General Macready, who was determined to ensure that only a body designed by officialdom would be there to represent the “rank and file.”

Thus the Police Federation was formed as a result of the Police Act of 1919, not by its members but by the government.

NUPPO, now outlawed, called another strike but there was little support this time round and every single officer who went on strike was dismissed from the force and lost their pension.

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Source: http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/problem-police-federation/