Some police officers are earning up to £100,000 a year, triple their basic salary, by putting in thousands of hours in overtime, it has emerged.
Figures obtained by the Times show that some constables in the Metropolitan Police work on average more than 36 hours a week in addition to their normal duties to cope with an increasing workload.
The leading 20 earners among the Met’s constables and sergeants took home £900,000 in overtime in the last financial year, the newspaper reports.
In its response to the Times’ freedom of information request, the Met said: “These roles, by their very nature, require officers to work long hours.”
The constables in the list obtained by the Times are paid £14.90 an hour, sergeants £16.75 an hour. The basic rate of overtime rate is time and a quarter but can rise to double time.
Even on the maximum, a constable would have to work 36 hours per week overtime to earn £55,960 in overtime. They do this by working on days off and during annual leave.
