Back in the late '70's they upped the salary substantially in order to stop PC's having to have two jobs, take bribes, depend on charity or leave.
They also found that the standard of recruit they were attracting was dire.
Here they are 30 odd years later.........
I was sitting in a cafe the other day, looked up to see two very short policemen, i doubt if either was 5ft tall, and couldn't help wondering if they were off to some fancy dress party, perhaps there are no height restrictions these days.
There aren't em, that was another thing that went in order to redress the number of cops that left in the 70's. Also it fell foul of the rash of discriminatory legislation (some races average height is less than your average Brits...)