joining police - any advice?

Poppy9

He should think about joining the specials. Looks good on application forms and gives him a feel for the job as they work alongside regulars. There are also these Police Community Support Officers. Not fully fledged coppers but paid more and far less paperwork. A friends partner earns about £23k after just 6 months as a PCSO. Would take a PC 4 years to reach that.

Aside from that you need to be physically fit, though you will not be automatically excluded with certain disabilities. There is information about criminal history. Can't remember the rules but you have to declare everything, even debts.

Many forces only recruit every couple of years now as applications are up and the selection process takes months and even then you may not be appointed for a year. A colleague in work was told he was successful last autumn with a probable start date of this July.

Paul_Varjak

Yes, Policeman do have a very difficult job to do and when you feel a great sense of injustice it can often be the poor Policeman that gets the worst end of a fiery tongue (or even worse).

In the main they do a good job, but there appear to be a few bitter ones who, once retired, take it out on others!

Queenie

Paul_Varjak wrote:

Yes, Policeman do have a very difficult job to do and when you feel a great sense of injustice it can often be the poor Policeman that gets the worst end of a fiery tongue (or even worse).

In the main they do a good job, but there appear to be a few bitter ones who, once retired, take it out on others!

They do an absolutely fantastic job under exceedingly and increasingly difficult circumstances!
I don't believe the retired ones are at all bitter but then, not met any myself and I believe they would be too professional in attitude to take it out on anyone!

YorkshireBoy

pavlovs_dog wrote:

i was justing wondering if there was anyone on here with any experience of the recruitment process,...., who have any hints or advice i could pass on to him?

My 20 year old son is applying shortly. He's been to several 'open days' and has been advised the next recruitment drive in our area takes place this coming September.

A neighbour of ours rose fairly rapidly from beat PC to CID sergeant, and the advice he gave my son was to gain some 'social' skills first before applying. He said they do not want 18 year olds straight from school/college (as it was in the old days). They now want people with good interpersonal skills gained from dealing with people from all walks of life.

My son promptly jacked in his job (a good one at that!), and has done a series of jobs over the last 8 months or so, in order to try and gain these 'social' skills. It's a hell of a gamble and it had better pay off, otherwise it'll have been a hell of a mistake.

By the way, I understand from our neighbour that the teamwork, camarardary (sp?), sense of achievement/excitement, variety of work, and of course THE PENSION, are second to none.

John_G66

If he gets in tell him to stop him and his mates from hiding behind bushes with speed trap devices and spend more time catching burglars. thieves and nonces.

Well.........someone had to say it !!

ilovefreebies_2

All forces now foolow the national recruitment model. Its easier than it used to be, alot more people are passing the tests.

Poppy9

More of a worry is the bitter and arrogant ones in the force. Just like all walks of life and professions good and bad prevail despite efforts to turn them into drones!!

Just read a BBC news item of two police officers assaulting person at party.

BBC

What the report doesn't say is if the victim was a thug too. Not that I am justifying the excessive violence just saying that complaints against police officers for assault seem to be investigated and prosecuted more than other assaults. It would be nice to have the whole story.

Does anyone else think that police officers have to have a degree of agression about them as daily they face the threat of attack with dangerous weapons. They have been trained to take control and overpower people. How do they switch off that button?

Not a job I would want.

Paul_Varjak

Queenie wrote:

They do an absolutely fantastic job under exceedingly and increasingly difficult circumstances!
I don't believe the retired ones are at all bitter but then, not met any myself and I believe they would be too professional in attitude to take it out on anyone!

If you have not met any retired policeman how do you know none of them are bitter? And I was not talking about all retired polcieman - just a few of them!

Queenie

My apologies Paul, must have been my punctuation which lead to a degree of confusion - I haven't met any bitter, retired Police Officers

Sofa_Sogood

YorkshireBoy wrote:

THE PENSION, are second to none.

That just about sums up the advantages from what I've seen lately YorkshireBoy

What happened to Hendon by the way??