The number of PSNI officers off on the sick is more than three times that for police forces in England and Wales, it has emerged.
The startling rate of PSNI sickness has been revealed at a time when the chief constable has raised concerns about significant underfunding.
The PSNI currently has 6,340 officers and according to official figures as of July 31, a total of 661 officers were absent due to illness, meaning that just over 10 percent of officers are currently off on the sick.
Of the 661 officers absent through sickness, 493 are described as as “absent long term”, which amounts to more than 7.7 percent of the workforce.
The latest Home Office figures, from March, show the current number of full-time or equivalent police officers in England and Wales is 147,746.
As of March, there were 5,934 officers on long-term absence in the 43 territorial police forces in the two regions.
Of these, 3,055 were on long term sick leave, the equivalent of 2.1 percent of police officers in England and Wales.
The PSNI recently confirmed that there are currently 357 officers absent from work due to mental health while it has been reported that two officers have taken their own lives in recent months due to work related pressure.
The total PSNI sick days linked to mental health last year was 108,614.
Alliance MLA and Policing Board member Peter McReynolds said there is a need to “better respect and support our public services and the PSNI in Northern Ireland”.
“An historic low on numbers of PSNI officers alongside significant cuts to public services has resulted in many employees working large amounts of overtime leading to officers suffering from stress and burnout,” he said.
Mr McReynolds said he continues to call for additional funding to be “allocated to public services and justice across Northern Ireland”.
Carol Mounce, PSNI Occupational Health and Wellbeing Director, said chief constable Jon Boutcher has raised concerns.
“The Chief Constable could not have been clearer when he told the Policing Board in August our sickness levels are off the scale because the organisation is exhausted,” she said.
“Appropriately resourced teams and overall service strength are a key factor in organisational wellbeing and absence levels.”
In recent weeks Mr Boutcher, who has highlighted the funding difficulties faced by his force, wrote to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“Increasing stress on the workforce has caused record high sickness levels simple because the organisation is exhausted,” Mr Boutcher wrote.
“Officers are routinely unable to take rest days or annual leave and have to work high levels of overtime.”
He said two officers have killed themselves.
“As a result of these pressures I am incredibly sad to report that in the last three months, two PSNI officers have committed suicide with both families directly attributing the reason for their deaths to work pressures in the PSNI,” he wrote.
“Both families reference high caseloads, working excessive overtime and being unable to take annual leave as the cause of the suicides.”
Mr Boutcher said that in his 40 year career he has not experienced or heard of officers taking their own lives “because of such workforce issues,” he said.
“I cannot sufficiently emphasise how under-funded and under-resourced the PSNI is compared with other police forces”, he added.
