At a central London hotel, a room of British and Irish police officers are considering whether to move to the other side of the world.
Around 70 officers and relatives turned out on a Monday afternoon to hear from several former UK officers at Western Australia Police who flew 17 hours from Perth with a simple message: Come join us.
Higher pay, sunny weather, and a greater work-life balance are being promised. Leaflets showing smiling officers in scuba-diving gear and sandy beaches are placed on chairs, along with packs of the iconic Australian chocolate bar, Tim Tams.
The most senior officers in the force are backing the poaching effort, including WA deputy commissioner Kylie Whiteley. She says that the force had received more than a thousand expressions of interest, and more than 820 applications - the majority from the UK.
“To be honest, the most common question we get is, ‘How quickly can we come?’” she told the Standard, adding: “We have opportunities in Western Australia that I don’t think are necessarily available in the current environment in the UK and Ireland.”
Benefits of the scheme open to those who have three years’ service include a £47,000 starting salary, and six weeks’ paid annual leave.
The event is just one of a number of multiple open days Western Australia Police is holding across London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin until March 9. WA minister Paul Papalia also landed in the UK on Saturday for an eight-day mission hoping to entice Brits, including teachers and nurses, to fill 31,000 vacancies across the state.
Among those selling life Down Under is former Met detective Tanya Tidey, who relocated in an earlier overseas recruitment campaign 15 years ago. She was happy at the Met, but says she had to jump at the “adventure of a lifetime”.
“The beaches sell themselves, you see exactly what you see on the videos and the photos,” she says.
“[Perth] is a very clean city, there’s plenty to do for families, lots to do for a single person, you’re living life and really are switching off from work.”
She adds: “I feel healthy, plenty of sun, and I feel it’s good to be in the UK but it’s made me know that my decision is the right one.”
It could be an appealing pitch for many UK officers, who report low morale amid the cost-of-living crisis.
A survey by the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers in England and Wales, found in January that nine in ten police officers feel financially worse off than they were five years ago, and nearly one in five officers plan to resign in the next two years for reasons including pay.
Last week, Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley admitted it was “increasingly hard” to recruit and retain talented officers over pay, raising fears he could be a thousand officers short by April. He is among the senior policing figures calling upon the Government to increase salaries in response.
“Police officers in England and Wales have suffered a real-terms pay cut of 28.7 per cent at the lowest end of the pay scale over the last decade, and are presently battling an excruciating rise in the cost of living,” says Police Federation chair, Steve Hartshorn.
“Then they are all tarnished with the same brush because of some individuals who should never have been in the job in the first place. It’s therefore unsurprising that a number of my colleagues are seriously considering leaving UK policing and moving to a different working environment overseas.”
Some British officers who have spoken to Supt Dominic Wood, who moved to Australia in 2006 after stints at Sussex and Manchester police, have echoed those concerns.
“They’re obviously concerned about the cost of living, they’re seeing the price of oil going up,” he says of UK officers speaking to him. “They feel there’s a lot of officers leaving the police here, so it’s putting a lot of pressure on the existing officers.
“I heard from some guy yesterday, that he’s working something ridiculous like an extra eight hours, so a 16-hour day, because there’s no-one to cover the car. So in some areas, I get the sense they’re tired, they’re exhausted, and they need more staff.”
Ms Whiteley is candid that the prospect of more money in their pockets is tempting UK and Irish officers. “Certainly we’ve noted that the pay is different, and we offer a very competitive pay in comparison to what’s available to officers here so I think that’s probably a significant driver,” she says.
The Home Office points to its aim of recruiting 20,000 new officers on the beat by March, of which 16,753 had been recruited by December, as a “unique opportunity to change the face of policing and help rebuild public trust in the profession”.
“The overwhelming majority of new recruits recently surveyed report positive job satisfaction and want to remain officers for the rest of their working lives,” says a spokesperson.
“We recognise the increased pressures with cost of living which is why we accepted the Police Remuneration Review Body’s recommendation to award a consolidated increase of £1,900 to all ranks of police officers.”
Aussie police concede, too, that they are recruiting internationally because they are confronted with their own staffing challenges.
For those considering relocating, the process is lengthy, involving background checks and a fitness test. There are costs associated, such as the visa application fee.
“I’m not aware of a policing agency that isn’t being confronted with some sort of decision at this point in time and it would be silly to even suggest that’s the case,” admits Ms Whiteley.
“[But] what we work hard to do is to make sure that our frontline operation is as well supported and is as lucrative for our officers as they possibly can be.”
