Bonus payments made by Tayside Police fell to just over £40,000 this year.
In 2010, the force paid out almost £53,214 to staff in various bonuses, while the total staff received in additional payments came to more than £1 million.
However, budgetary pressures led to bonuses for superintendents and chief offices being suspended for a year, leading to the dramatic fall in the force’s bonus bill.
The total amount of bonus money paid out by Tayside Police was £41,478, split between 21 members of staff. The highest single award made was £5,085.
Dave Hamilton, secretary of the Tayside Police Federation, said more money should be paid out in bonuses to rank-and-file officers who have to carry out particularly grisly duties, such as ”removing a corpse from a burned-out car.”
He said: ”Superintendents got a bonus as part of their pay deal but didn’t take them this year, given the financial climate, while the Special Priority Payment Scheme was scrapped.
”It didn’t really count as a bonus but saved the police £10 million a year,” he said.
Officers can still receive a payment called through the Additional Bonus Scheme. Such payments are awarded retrospectively for officers who carry out exceptional tasks or for outstanding police work or have to carry out particularly unpleasant duties, such as removing badly-damaged corpses, but Mr Hamilton said not enough officers are benefiting.
He said: ”We would like to see that used more. We are not seeing it used as much as it should as there are a lot of people dealing with some very traumatic things.”
Other public sector bodies in Tayside also paid out significant bonuses this year.
Abertay University paid out £12,636 in bonuses to two people while the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator in Dundee paid out a single bonus of £3,500.
The Forth Road Bridge made bonus payments totalling nearly £250,000 to 36 members of staff.