I retire from my UK Force today after 30 years service........

Must feel good!

Congrats!!

Congrats on reaching the light at the end of the tunnel

Congrats for making it!

 

Congrats!
You deserve it.

Congrats!!!!

Congrats.  So where do Bobbies go after they retire?

Congrats!  Just out of curiosity, do you guys across the pond have pensions/retirements like we do here in the States?  I mean I'm sure there is compensation, just wondering how they are set up.

Where's the career recap?

Congrâts

Where are you retiring to? France? Spain? Those seem to be the popular places for Englanders.

God Bless you, three more here and I max out at 32.

Congrats!

I was fortunate enough to serve under the best employment terms the service ever saw. That has been steadily dismantled over the last 20 years, but my generation of officer will escape unscathed, with all of our original terms honoured. Basically I had to complete 30 years service for a full pension, which I can commute up to one third to have a cash lump sum, and a residual two-thirds pension. This is the most popular option, and what I have done. There is a small tax hit to take, but it doesn't compare to the depreciation in real terms of you opt to take a lesser amount to avoid paying tax. You can take a full pension with no commutation. I could have stayed on longer, but the pension multiplier is age related and if you stay too long it starts to reduce your final pension. My pension becomes index linked at age 55, and I also get  a rebate from when I actually retired. It also provides for a 50% widows pension, and throughout my service I received a rent allowance, which dates back to when the Chief could restrict where you live. That's been gone for about 20 years. It was replaced by a flat rate allowance but even that has gone now.



I have colleagues who joined at 18, so can retire with any of these options at age 48! Pretty good deal.



Current younger service officers can now expect to have to work to age 60 (yeah, right) to get a full pension. If they resign beforehand. they get nothing until age 60. Also the starting salary is to be reduced, although there are fewer annual increments to get to top rate for the rank. There are a pile of other cuts that have been dumped on the officers at the bottom of the pile. Save to say, knowing what the job entails, I would not join under the new conditions of service.
 

1984-1990: Uniform beat officer in busy town centre & suburb, included Control Room, CID and Drug Squad attachments

1990-1995: Detective training, posted to busy city department, Day to day crime plus several Murder Incident major enquiries and international banking frauds that got me trips to Europe... Promoted to Sergeant.

1995-2000: Seconded to a joint Air Support Unit, 2 i/c operating a high-tec helicopter. Qualified as Air observer and Unit Executive Officer (first in the Force's history), serving two Force areas. Probably the most fun time of my service as I come from a flying background. Sadly also the most frustrating as inter-Force politics had me butting heads with senior officers who ultimately clipped my wings .

2000-2002: Returned to my home Force as a Divisional Supervisor, which was actually good fun as my role was Division wide incident management and troubleshooting, with the backing of the Divisional Commander. During this time I qualified as an Authorised Firearms Officer.

2002-2014: Primary role as a Supervisor with the Royal Household Protection Group. Secondary firearms specialisations with Tactical Weapons Team (SWAT to you), DE/DI/Hostage Rescue. Sniper, Operational Firearms Commander, Tactical Firearms Advisor.



I wish I had kept a detailed diary...



 

Happy where I am , but certainly intending to see more of the World..



 

Congratulations...  from a guy who has 28 on, and at 27 they changed our retirement plan.  Now, I have another 19 in front of me.  

Congratulations!

That's crazy! What's the back story?

Jeebus!

 

Awesome.  Thanks for the info.  It's always interesting to see how my LEO brethren from other places do the job, retire from it, etc.

I love the "s" where we'd put a "z".

Congratulations.

I sincerely hope you live a long and prosperous life and enjoy that retirement.  I very much hope to get back to UK for an extended visit soon.  Some FANTASTIC memories of travel there as a youth and young man.

They changed our terms a few years ago, but honoured them for everyone within 5 years of retirement due to their 'reasonable expectations' and phased the rest in up to, I think 10 years. Beyond that, you were screwed....

 

double check my math on this:

IF hired at 21+28+19= 68 years old  IF hired older what is the age of retirement?

68 year old cop chasing a bad guy or FF dragging hose, is a LODD waiting to happen.

I cannot fathom cops or ff's working to that age. Unless some sort of high ranking chief officer or such I believe there should be a mandatory retirement age of 58 at the oldest for line types. I am a Captain in the FD I MAY go to 54 for a full 30 but plan on going at 53 which is our states age to go without penalty.

do you get to keep your gun....or stick or whatever?

congrats!

congrats my brother.

Non-Union?

Congrats brother. Coming up on the first anniversary of my retirement. Left with 35 years, Sgt. For 28 years. Got 87 1/2 % of my pay. Adds up to about $1,400.00 more a month than I was taking home when working.
Really miss my guys and the social aspect of a close unit, (Motors my last five years) but not the bullshit of a dept. in decline.
Stayed retired two months, then went part time with a small Tech College. Days, 10 minutes from home, only 26 hours a week. Stay certified, something to do.

Nope. My own guns are better anyway....

 

 

I hope to see your post count on TOS go up. Just sayin.

ha ha....I'm busy enough doing things around the house that have been waiting @20 years. I did build a man woman cave this week..

I retire in 30 years

A bit delayed....but Congratulations brother!