£150,000 bonus payouts to West Mercia police officers
Hundreds of West Mercia Police officers have been paid almost £150,000 in bonuses for dealing with incidents including murders and fatal car crashes in the past three years.
Discretionary payments of between £50 and £500 for involvement in such incidents are part of West Mercia Police policy, in line with other forces around the country.
Payments are made for a variety of reasons including "occasional work of an outstandingly unpleasant, demanding or important nature".
West Mercia Police said they were unable to give a breakdown of what each bonus payment was for.
A Freedom of Information request by the Shropshire Star has revealed 403 officers received payments totalling £144,427.06 from 2010/11 to 2012/13.
The information has been revealed after Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, pledged to raise the issue of the bonus payments with Home Secretary Theresa May.
The FoI response revealed £69,064.66 was paid out by the force, which covers Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, in 2010/11 to 210 officers.
In 2011/12, 91 officers shared bonuses worth £40,669.55, while in 2012/13, payments of £34,692.85 went to 102 officers.
But in the first six months of 2013/14, only 13 bonus payments have been made, totalling £3,550.
West Mercia Police policy states "bonus payments of between £50 and £500 per head can be made to recognise occasional work of an outstandingly unpleasant, demanding or important nature".
Freedom of Information requests to other forces have revealed "unpleasant" tasks typically relate to dealing with dead bodies, often in a state of advanced decomposition.
Robert Oxley, campaign director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said money would be better spent on providing counselling services to officers instead of bonuses.
"This is a very difficult part of the police officer's role and it is vital that the right support is in place, but throwing bonuses at the problem isn't the solution," he said.
Last week, Mr Vaz said: "I would have thought that dealing with these matters were part of the job."
