Police bonuses soar to £2.7m

Bonus payouts for police officers in the West Midlands doing dangerous jobs have increased more than five-fold in three years to over £2.7 million, the Express & Star can exclusively reveal.

Almost half of the force's bobbies shared a bonus of £2,767,318.

In 2005 the figure was just £478,000. However the number of police staff being awarded the payouts has dropped from 3,802 in 2005 to 3,260 this year.

The average payout per officer is now £849.

Bonuses are paid for doing difficult or distressing jobs such as hostage negotiations and searching badly decomposed bodies.

Officers have also been awarded for taking weapons from armed criminals and child protection work which can often have a lasting personal impact.

Teams as well as individuals can be recognised for their work

Bonus payment panels meet locally every month and make recommendations to commanders and department bosses as to who should be rewarded. Officers are told that the payments must be within existing budgets and bureaucracy kept to a minimum.

In Staffordshire the county's officers receive £1,206 each in annual bonuses for tasks such as attending car crashes.

Staffordshire Police's figure is the highest in the UK, according to statistics released under the Freedom of Information Act.