Officers are sleeping at force premises because of short breaks between shifts, Fed claims

Metropolitan Police officers are having to sleep on the floor of force premises because of short breaks between shifts, the federation has claimed.

Met Fed Chairman John Tully said some officers were sleeping on police station floors to avoid travelling to and from work between shifts as well a being tired due to cancelled rest days.

One anonymous officer told London-based radio station LBC that colleagues had used bolt croppers to break into disused police accommodation to sleep there.

The radio station said the problem had been compounded because only four out of 10 Met officers lived in Greater London and did not have enough time to commute home, rest and come back between 12-hour shifts.

The radio station also reported some officers were sleeping in cupboards on police premises.

While the force said it did not recognise the individual comments on the radio, Mr Tully said the stories rang true.

He said: “Officers are sleeping on police station floors due to unacceptably short breaks between duties – federation members are also experiencing an unprecedented number of cancelled rest days.

“Tired officers driving high-speed response cars, handling overworked dogs and carrying loaded firearms presents obvious concerns. But even when it comes to interacting with either the law-abiding public or the bad guys, they are finding it hard to find the energy reserves to do the professional job we want to do.”

Cdr Tony Eastaught, from the Met’s Territorial Policing Command, said: “While I don’t recognise those individual comments, I do recognise that everyone in the Metropolitan Police Service has worked incredibly hard over several months in order to help deliver one of the most successful Olympics in living memory.

“The effort and commitment of all our staff has been superb.”

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