£2.1m cost of top West Midlands Police retirements
Seventeen senior West Midlands Police officers retired on pensions costing over £2.1 million – and then were hired in different roles and paid a total of £380,000.
West Midlands Police used the controversial A19 regulation to forcibly retire officers after 30 years' service, saying that it needed to cut the wage bill drastically due to the depth of Government cuts. It can today be revealed, however, after pensioning off 17 officers, the force brought them back in either temporary or consultant roles, as civilians, or in different roles.
Four of the 17 have since left again after completing a range of 12-18 months between them but 13 are still employed.
The force released the old ranks of officers, their salary bandings while they were back at the force, and the bandings of the pension lump sums they received and their rolling pension amounts under the Freedom of Information Act. Police and Crime Commissioner Bob Jones said:?"I'm not sure it represents a good deal for the public."
