POLICE officers in South Yorkshire have earned nearly £18 million in bonuses over the last five years - prompting calls for bosses to spend the cash on employing more bobbies instead.
Using The Freedom of Information Act, The Star has discovered that over the last five financial years police have been paid £17,843,712 on top of their salaries and overtime payments. The Taxpayers' Alliance today called the cash to be spent on fighting crime instead.
Over the same period of time police officer numbers have steadily decreased, with bosses claiming they have had to axe posts to make the service more efficient. There is currently a recruitment freeze in force.
Between April 2004 and the end of September this year a total of £7,812,452 was paid out in 'competence related threshold payments'.
They are given to bobbies for demonstrating high professional competence, achieving good results, showing a commitment to the job, developing good relations with the public and colleagues, showing a willingness to learn, and showing an ability to adjust to new circumstances.
An average of 1,400 officers each year qualified for the payments.
Over the same period officers received a share of £9,616,612 given out as 'special priority payments' - paid to frontline officers with higher responsibility normal for their rank.
The payments are also given to officers in roles which are particularly difficult to fill or which have especially demanding working conditions and working environments.
They are made annually and can add up to as much as £5,000 a time.
Another £82,380 was paid out in payments to bobbies involved in difficult and unpleasant tasks during their working day. Since 2004 a total of 301 such payments have been made.
The figures unearthed through The Freedom of Information Act show senior ranking police officers were paid £193,206 over the last five years under the Chief Officers' and Superintendents' Bonus Schemes.
Chief Constables can be awarded up to 15 per cent of their salary, Deputy Chief Constables can get up to 12.5 per cent, and Assistant Chief Constables can earn an additional 10 per cent.
Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive at the Taxpayers' Alliance, which campaigns for a better use of taxpayers' cash, said: "An incredible amount of taxpayers' money has been spent on these bonuses.
"While there may be some cases where the bonuses were merited, fighting crime and creating good community relations is the most basic function of the police force, and we should not be giving out large cash payments for these duties.
"South Yorkshire Police need to provide empirical evidence that bonuses are directly correlated with better policing and a reduction in crime, otherwise they must be scrapped."
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