828 replies to this topic

[TallGuy]

No bounty in Dorset though we do have some coconut trees.

We just get mileage and subsistence paid at the breakpoints as defined in the HOC, but with 'time-zero' starting when you book on duty at the station.

[Whopper MacBig]

In light of the recent news article which claimed that the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police, Julia Hodson, has asked for a pay rise for her chief officers, it got me thinking.

Source: Anger at Nottinghamshire police chiefs pay rise proposals

I currently serve in Nottinghamshire as a Special and have done for a couple of years. We were recently informed that our £500 yearly bounty payment would be stopped and the funds would be re-directed towards the 'recruitment and training of more specials'. This upset a few long-serving Specials, but the majority of us took it on the chin and carried on doing the amount of hours we always have.

It did however get me thinking about just how much of an effect the bounty has on the police budget, so I did some maths.

Notts Police currently have 320 serving specials. To receive the bounty payment, each specials had to serve a minimum of 300 hours per year. This equals 96,000 hours of additional police resources (minimum).

That huge amount of time cost the force £160,000 per year in bounty payments. This sounds like quite a lot of money until you consider that the Chief Constable received a £142,143 salary in 2010, only £17,857 less than the cost of every Special in Nottinghamshire.

Assuming the Chief Constable performs a 40 hours week, this means she does 2,080 hours a year which equates to a wage of £68.33 per hour. In comparison, a Special Constable who puts in 300 duty hours a year (most put in a LOT more) and who receives a bounty payment would earn the equivalent of £1.66 per hour.

Food for thought isn't it?


The real purpose of this thread is to find out if your force issues bounty payments to specials and what you think of bounty payments in general?

It wouldn't have cost them anything near £160,000 because not all of your Specials will have done 300 hours.

There's a long-running discussion on payment here . (which I'll merge this one with once you've clocked it)
All the Scottish forces pay a bounty of £1100 per annum.

[Soliloquy]

Bounty payment! We don't even get a Bounty Bar!

(The force stopped providing packed lunches for training and most operations last year)

You used to get food?

[Damsel]

You used to get food?

If the packed lunches in South Yorkshire are anything like the ones in Avon & Somerset, "Food" might be stretching it a bit.

[cfnbryn]

We used to get packed lunches for training at evenings etc, the food during the day was nice, but the packed lunches left one feeling rather hungry when putting it into the bin.

[AnthonyB]

You used to get food?

For training and long duration planned events both regs & specials would get brown bag packed lunches. The Chocolate, crisps & water were fine, the rest was very hit and miss.....

All history now due to budget cuts.

[callsign-kid]

We don't get bounties or anything of the kind, not even a kit kat. Seriously though we do get expenses which are supposed to cover things but they're so unreliable paying them

[spurs92]

We don't get bounties or anything of the kind, not even a kit kat. Seriously though we do get expenses which are supposed to cover things but they're so unreliable paying them

Tell me about it

[Mr So Special]

A bounty is a GOOD idea, however, some of the qualifying criteria could be seen as poor.
1) Attending training - I work full time, so to attend 40 hours training, (as a lot of people complain it's in the week) do have have to use one weeks annual leave up? If so, then the bounty just really covers for the period I was on leave from my normal role?
2) Football - I do understand that there is a large call for extra officers at football matches and quite fair. There are also a lot of students who work as specials, they may also end up working at weekends to earn a living. So if they work at the football, again, they have to take annual leave from work or lose a day pay.

If the model is going to be used it must be based on what the police want out of the specials. If training (as suggested in the poll) was 40 hours, then that's 20% of a specials hours. This would then need a 20% increase in specials numbers to cover the fact that they are training for 20% of their time on shifts, rather than on the beat. Like the TA, the bounties should vary from year to year and if you understand that you have people working for free, then as you increase in service, the bounty increases, until it hits a cap. If SC's are good at their role, move them up a grade in the bounty scale, so an SC after 12 years of doing ###### all does not get the same (gets less) then a special who's put his back in to the role for 5 years.

Also I think people must remember that SC's have a life outside of the police. Many people say about some only doing minimum hours, what if they have kids at home? Or their full time role is actually 48 hours a wekk. You can say - Well don't join, but then it's YOU who loses out on the man power.

[JH99]

oooh, I like the scales idea! +1

[BigCopSmallTown]

Durham constabulary have this year ended their bounty scheme as it is "not fair to pay a bounty to volunteers when the force is redunding support staff". There are several views on this and I fear a number of commited specials will disappear once the bounty has gone. From my perspective getting "command approval" for a weekend night shift rather than spending it with my family was much easier to obtain when my good lady was aware that the hours paid for our annual holiday.
My hours are certainly going to go down this year - not because I have any less commitment but merely because my partner (as will many other I'm sure) be less likely to accept the disruption to family life when there is no benefit to our family unit. We got together when I was already serving and understands why I do what I do but the simple point is family life has to be ones first priority and other things come second, including policing. If my family gain nothing from my absence from home life (on top of a busy full time job) then how can I put in as much as I did before...

A sad state of affairs when the Durham Bounty scheme cost around £80k - pocket money for the x000's of hoursof policing we contribute.

[steveo916]

Although there is no scheme within Hampshire, We are looked after very well.

Probably the best force in England

[Whopper MacBig]

Probably the best force in England

You'd have to have served with all the other ones in order for that to be objective .....

Durham constabulary have this year ended their bounty scheme as it is "not fair to pay a bounty to volunteers when the force is redunding support staff". There are several views on this and I fear a number of commited specials will disappear once the bounty has gone. From my perspective getting "command approval" for a weekend night shift rather than spending it with my family was much easier to obtain when my good lady was aware that the hours paid for our annual holiday.
My hours are certainly going to go down this year - not because I have any less commitment but merely because my partner (as will many other I'm sure) be less likely to accept the disruption to family life when there is no benefit to our family unit. We got together when I was already serving and understands why I do what I do but the simple point is family life has to be ones first priority and other things come second, including policing. If my family gain nothing from my absence from home life (on top of a busy full time job) then how can I put in as much as I did before...

A sad state of affairs when the Durham Bounty scheme cost around £80k - pocket money for the x000's of hoursof policing we contribute.

Shocking. Compared to the £80K, I'd be interested to know how much it costs to make a member of support staff redundant and how many jobs were saved as a result of this cut.

[steveo916]

Hence why i said, probably as i cannot prove this point.

[Whopper MacBig]

Hence why i said, probably as i cannot prove this point.

So just as likely to be 'probably not' then

[steveo916]

I would be most confident that it would not be the latter.

Edited by steveo916, 09 January 2012 - 08:36 PM.

[marshy]

Didn't want to go off topic so removed my first comment.

I'm not a Special Constable yet but if when I join, I get paid a little something for doing something I enjoy then that's a bonus. But that's not what I am expecting. Being able to help people and communities to feel safe is why I'm applying.

Edited by marshy, 27 January 2012 - 12:44 AM.

[MacGregor]

I've looked at this topic a few times since I joined the forum and have always thought it best not to reply in case I'm accused of doing things for the wrong reasons. However, I've had a change of heart.

I live in Scotland and I am currently a specials applicant with Lothian and Borders for those that don't know. I can honestly say I wouldn't even think of applying if the bounty payment wasn't available in Scotland. I struggle financially as it is, I would just be giving up time where I could be working in a job that pays. I didn't apply for the bounty payment but without it I couldn't justify being a special. If anybody thinks I am doing this for the wrong reasons then I would ask them to keep that thought to themselves as I'm not interested in hearing it.

I think the bounty system run up here is quite good. It allows for people like me to be able to justify joining but those who don't want to take part in the system don't have to. I can't offer too much of an insight into the requirements but they seem quite fair to me.

[Giraffe]

I've looked at this topic a few times since I joined the forum and have always thought it best not to reply in case I'm accused of doing things for the wrong reasons. However, I've had a change of heart.

I live in Scotland and I am currently a specials applicant with Lothian and Borders for those that don't know. I can honestly say I wouldn't even think of applying if the bounty payment wasn't available in Scotland. I struggle financially as it is, I would just be giving up time where I could be working in a job that pays. I didn't apply for the bounty payment but without it I couldn't justify being a special. If anybody thinks I am doing this for the wrong reasons then I would ask them to keep that thought to themselves as I'm not interested in hearing it.

I think the bounty system run up here is quite good. It allows for people like me to be able to justify joining but those who don't want to take part in the system don't have to. I can't offer too much of an insight into the requirements but they seem quite fair to me.

I respect the fact that you're honest about it CJM, and if I'm honest if I were offered a bounty (we don't have one in my force), I wouldn't turn it down. I have to ask though, if you're struggling financially would you not be better off getting a part time job in somewhere like Tesco? You would earn far more in a much shorter space of time.

You openly admit that you wouldn't even apply if it weren't for the bounty - not a problem - but the fact remains that even with the bounty such as is Scotland, the Special Constabulary is a voluntary organisation. As Durham have evidently found out there's no guarantee that any bounty will be maintained, even if it is effective and popular with officers.

I'm assuming the bounty is only a part of the reason you are joining?

[MacGregor]

I respect the fact that you're honest about it CJM, and if I'm honest if I were offered a bounty (we don't have one in my force), I wouldn't turn it down. I have to ask though, if you're struggling financially would you not be better off getting a part time job in somewhere like Tesco? You would earn far more in a much shorter space of time.

I could work in Tesco but I'd rather do something more challenging with my spare time. The fact that there is a bounty payment just means I don't have to worry about money so much. I have the summer to earn my money and I can (usually) get by without having to work for the rest of the year as long as I'm sensible with what I have. I'm not struggling so much that I need to be working the whole time but a little extra money for doing something I've always had an interest in doing certainly wouldn't go amiss.

You openly admit that you wouldn't even apply if it weren't for the bounty - not a problem - but the fact remains that even with the bounty such as is Scotland, the Special Constabulary is a voluntary organisation. As Durham have evidently found out there's no guarantee that any bounty will be maintained, even if it is effective and popular with officers.

If the bounty payment was to be withdrawn then I would have to reconsider things but whilst it is there I see no reason not to take advantage of it. This past year has been pretty much worst case scenario financially and I've managed to do a lot better than I ever imagined so I wouldn't necessarily have to resign if they withdrew it.

I'm assuming the bounty is only a part of the reason you are joining?

I said as much in my previous post, you don't need to assume anything here. I applied for the role because I want to challenge myself and do something a little more useful than sitting about getting drunk and playing on the Xbox like so many of my peers seem to do.

I hope that clears things up a little.

[ijsporter]

im joining knowing i wont be getting paid even though iv got a good job im doing it for me to make a difference in this world even if ts only a small one ...anyway . just wondering what does the TA get for bounty iv been told its pretty good regards and HAPPY EASTER from ian

Edited by ijsporter, 02 April 2012 - 04:08 PM.

[Swede1304]

@ Ian Terriers also get full pay during active service.
I am in the same boat as Ian I get paid more as a civvy than a Police Officer and I for one did not join for the money, to leave my job and get paid as an PC would have been a choice 20 years ago but now I am in a FT time job I love and still looking forward to becoming an SC unpaid.

[Strathy-SC]

@ Ian Terriers also get full pay during active service.
I am in the same boat as Ian I get paid more as a civvy than a Police Officer and I for one did not join for the money, to leave my job and get paid as an PC would have been a choice 20 years ago but now I am in a FT time job I love and still looking forward to becoming an SC unpaid.

No one I know who does the Specials and gets paid does it for the money either, in fact most don't even know about the payment when they apply.

The whole point of the bonus is to motivate people to work harder and get a great reward out of it. It's a great feeling when you work your butt off all year with the Specials and then May comes you get a £1,100 in the bank that will let you take your family away on holiday after them putting up with you working all hours of the day.

[RedCap]

im joining knowing i wont be getting paid even though iv got a good job im doing it for me to make a difference in this world even if ts only a small one ...anyway . just wondering what does the TA get for bounty iv been told its pretty good regards and HAPPY EASTER from ian

The bounty at the moment is in the region of £1600 at the max. In addition they get a daily rate of pay equal to the Regular army minus the x factor. Now the armed forces have pay as you die, I mean dine, they have to pay for their meals. The training requirement is 6 weekends and 2 weeks = 480 hours per annum, although most do much more. The downside is that you are expected to turn up when requested, pass annual tests in all military skills and fitness, and be prepared to spend the best part of a year training for, and deploying to sandy places. The old days of it being a drinking club are well and truely over.

[ijsporter]

The bounty at the moment is in the region of £1600 at the max. In addition they get a daily rate of pay equal to the Regular army minus the x factor. Now the armed forces have pay as you die, I mean dine, they have to pay for their meals. The training requirement is 6 weekends and 2 weeks = 480 hours per annum, although most do much more. The downside is that you are expected to turn up when requested, pass annual tests in all military skills and fitness, and be prepared to spend the best part of a year training for, and deploying to sandy places. The old days of it being a drinking club are well and truely over.

thanks for that mate