U.K Police chiefs were being "rewarded for failure''

Police are being paid thousands of pounds in merit bonuses despite running poorly performing forces. Bonus pay-outs vary widely across the country and often do not reflect the success of forces in official Home Office performance ratings. Critics said police chiefs were being "rewarded for failure'' and called for the rules to be tightened. Half the forces in England and Wales are boycotting the bonus scheme entirely, and one chief constable said she and most of her counterparts were "morally'' opposed to it. But three chief officers of Lincolnshire Police, for example, shared a pounds 40,000 bonus last year, despite having their force rated one of the six worst in England and Wales by the Home Office. Yet at Surrey Police, which finished joint top of the performance table, no bonuses were paid after Bob Quick, its chief constable, and his senior colleagues opted out.
The scheme, introduced in 2004, covers about 200 police chiefs and would be worth up to pounds 1.5 million if all were paid a full bonus. Now its future will be reviewed by the Police Negotiating Board. Among the 44 forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, eight paid bonuses last year, while 20 did not, according to details released under the Freedom of Information Act. The rest would not say. Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Under no circumstances should police chiefs be rewarded for failure. The fact that this is clearly happening is very worrying for public security.'' Lincolnshire Police was awarded only seven out of 18 points in the Home Office's annual ratings. The last assessment by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, in 2006, found the force "poor'' at tackling serious and organised crime and at investigating "volume crime'', such as burglary. Yet Tony Lake, the chief constable, Richard Crompton, his deputy, and Peter Davies, the assistant chief constable, shared a pay-out of pounds 39,885 in 2006/7. All three men received close to their maximum pay-out, which in Mr Lake's case would have been pounds 17,620 on top of a salary of pounds 117,468. Lincolnshire Police Authority, which approved the bonuses, said: "A simple 'league table' approach does not take account of each force's particular challenges nor of any improvement made. Despite being the poorest-funded force, its performance has continued to improve and has been independently assessed as efficient and effective.'' In Britain's biggest force, the Metropolitan Police, which also turned in a mid-ranking performance, 37 eligible officers shared a pay-out of pounds 210,197. Sir Ian Blair, the commissioner, whose salary is pounds 240,813, waived his bonus, worth up to pounds 36,000, for the second year running. North Wales paid pounds 18,297 bonuses despite a mid-ranking performance. Gillian Parker, the chief constable of Bedfordshire, who has opted out of the scheme, said: "Most of us felt, morally, that it was not the right thing to do. "As a public servant, I felt that I must be able to do what I think is right, without anybody being able to say to me that I have only done it because I'm going to get some money out of it.''