The Police

[Tigger]

I did it !
So if any of you are thinking of leaving and joining the ba$tards in black then drop me a line.
There are plus's and minus's to it. A definate minus being the pay till you are on independant patrol. I took a 4k pay cut !!!!!
On the plus side you can't beat floor some drunken gob****e who wants to fight the world and locking them up.

I was a rigger before I joined the police.

 

[Rigga]

Get yer Licences and get back on the Line - +15K!

 

[TheHogwartsBEngO]

There's more to life than money - and it sounds like Tigga enjoys his work. Good for you mate!

The police was something I seriously considered as a second career, but I looked into carefully and decided I wasn't the right sort of person.

I have a few mates in the police - they take a lot of rough with the smooth, but they find their job very rewarding on the whole.

I have a lot of respect for the boys in blue - it's a tough job, but they do it quite well despite what the media scum say.

 

[Joe90]

I thought about this last year. Spent a bit of time with the local bobbies to see what it's "really" like. As you'd expect it's the opposite of the recruitment spiel and the guys I met were as bitter and twisted as the guys you meet throughout the RAF.
I'd only ever become a copper now if I was guarenteed to go Traffic, cos I'm sick of the cnuts on the roads these days and I'd love to pull 'em over and stiff 'em

Respect to the dudes with funny shaped heads.

 

[MyShineyAr$e]

I was thinking about it until I realised just how much money you lose out on. The real show stopper though was the Pension Contribution. Makes you realise how good we have it really.

 

[firestorm]

If you join the old bill you would have to join their new, all improved(!) pension scheme. The money at first is nothing to shout about but there is still incremental pay and more overtime than you can shake a stick at. My mate is a plod with 5 years service and his pay outstrips mine with 15 years service!

 

[Tigger]

The real show stopper though was the Pension Contribution. Makes you realise how good we have it really.

Are you nuts ? My pension is far better than it ever would have been in the mob. I got 11 years police pension for 15 years in the mob. I retire on two thirds of my final wage plus about 85K in cash. So if you consider a top payband PC is on just over 30K, thats not too bad.

On commencing service 20,397
On completion of initial training period 22,770
2 24,090
3 25,563
4 26,367
5 27,213
6 27,990
7 28,683
8 29,601
9 31,392
10 32,025

If you sit the exam and become a skipper, then this is what awaits you

0 32,025
1 33,123
2 34,233
3 34,965
4 35,991

And if you become an inspector, which is perfectly reasonable to attain. You start on £41,034.

And I retire at 52 on that lot !!!



The new pension is bollox !

 

[Wing boy]

Hey Tigger I am seriously thinking of a 2nd career in the Police. I have heard some horror stories about the selection process though. Could you P.M. me with some details about how to get past the interviews etc?? Your help would be greatly appreciated as not only myself but my 2 brothers wish to join. Our grandfather was (in his own words) a defective. cheers bud

Wing boy

 

[Tigger]

A few people have asked me now whats involved with police selection. Instead of writing 3 PMS's, I'll write this, then if anyone still has questions I'll be more than happy to answer their PM's.

The first thing you have to do is come into this with your eyes open.....I mean that, you think you've seen stuff, then you come into this !!! I'me sure you've all seen a corpse, maybe even a broken up corpse, but in this job you may have to get hands on with it ! A colleague of mine recently went to a guy who hadn't been seen for weeks ! They could smell the body outside the front door ! A fairly recent one smells like Bernard Matthews Turkey ham slices.
Next thing to appreciate is that we don't go to nice places. We have an expression in this job ''wipe your feet on the way out''. I have been to some right **** holes !!!! I've had hyperdermic syringes sticking in my boot in one house.
People are never happy to see you, because very rarely do you have good news.
The paperwork is an absolute nightmare, I thought I did a lot as a rigger...not even close, multiply it by about 5.
Thats some of the bad stuff

The good stuff now.
I got taught how to drive a car properly. I thought I could drive till I went on the 3 week driving course. 140 MPH on the A1M !!!!!! Costs me a fortune on tyres on my own car now. I don't care what anyone says, splitting the morning rush hour traffic when your on blues and two's is a buzz.
Personally I love the public order side of things. You can't beat being out on a Saturday night and someone kicks off ! 8 of you and your mates in a big blue riot van turn up and get stuck in.....result !
Giving traffic tickets to muppets who don't strap their kids in and chat on mobile phones...have it.
The overtime DT_Xtremez_14:
Doing early morning wakeups which involve smashing in a front door and piling into the house.
The cameradirie isn't as good as the mob, but at work if ur in the **** people will drop what they're doing an run. I recently turned up at a fight outside a pub in Peterborough. There were 40 people fighting outside and I was trying to sort out an unconcious lad on the deck who'd swallowed his tongue after being punched. Things were going downhill fast so I hit my emergency button. 3 mins later the whole world turned up. There were coppers coming from every corner of the division, firearms, dogs, beat bobbies you name it. I was fookin glad to see them.

If you come somewhere like I am, then expect to work your arse off. I mean no breaks, and sometimes no food. But you will see some things. My second night on independant patrol ie signed off to work on my own. I was first on scene to a fatal accident, where a 14 year old had been hit by a car in lane 2 of a dual carriageway. What would you do in the same circumstances ...........?
I've also been first on scene to an attempted murder

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/4935868.stm this guy had his throat cut wide open and the news got it wrong, it was definately life threatening, thats why I escorted the ambulance to hospital and why we had a full trauma team waiting.

Ok so still want the job ?
First off, don't think because you've been in the military you'll breeze in. Yes you have certain skills that are useful, but you still need to prove yourself.
First thing to do is the Potential Police Officers course at Aldershot. There is one up north, but the Aldershot one is the best. Last two weeks and you'll eat sleep and **** police work.
Next comes the application, Try and have it to the force a year before you're due out. my selection took almost exactly a year from applying to the day I started. Try and have it done by the time you do the PPO's course, so Bill Hodge can have a read over it. This is the first time the force will look at you, so try and impress from the start. I took a month to fill in mine. I also got the education officer to proof read it for mistakes I missed. You need to be hitting the police core competences, hit enough and you'll get through the paper sift.

Next post assessment centre.................

 

[Tigger]

I've cut and pasted this from a PM I sent to someone whos asked the same question.

Ok so we've got through paper sift and you've moved onto assessment centre....this is where we start to really shine! This is when they get they're first look at you. Never relax at this, you are being watched the whole time. Be careful what you say, don't crack rude jokes or make any innappropriate comments. The police is red hot on political correctness.
At assessment centre you need to remember what you said on your application in answer to the questions. The AC is in sections, you have an interview where he will ask you the same 4 questions and give you 5 mins to answer. It can be a very sterile and cold enviroment, don't worry. He is sitting there with a tick sheet marking off when you hit one of the compentencies. Get enough and you pass. You must be good at respect for race and diversity. You can score ok on others, but fail that and it's bye bye.
Next comes a written test, well two actually. The scenario is usually along the lines of a complaint and you have to reply to it. In one of the answers you will usually have to say NO I'm sorry but I can't do that because......
They are looking for you to understand the problem, recognise what you can do and offer a solution.
Next come arithmatic and logic test...piece of **** !!! I'll tell you the trick to passing them nearer the time, but don't worry they're easy...real noddy stuff and a bit of common sense.
Then we come to the role plays. Remember this phrase '' Hi I'm XYZ, I'm the manager, can you tell me whats happened or how can I help you ?'' You just got a load of marks for introducing youself and asking to help.
That phrase will give you thinking time, because the role players have a set speil to go through now.
Prior to going in you will have been given 5 mins to read a scenario so you've got an idea what you're going into.
Same as the letters, it's a problem, find out what happened, identify the problem and offer a solution.
I had one where a shop owner was having stuff nicked all the time which was causing a drain on security resources. I offered to come assess how we could improve the layout, then visit a nearby shop who had very little problems and see how they did it. Simple solutions to a simple problem.

Ok hopefully we get through that, oh when you go make sure you look like a military guy in civvy's. Ie smart suit, nice tie, shiney shoes and stand up straight and look confident Trust me it will get noticed and you will stand out, which is what they want. They don't want someone who stands at the back and hides.
I wore a nice suit, a red silk tie and my RAF No 1 shoes which the painters had done the toe caps on ! hehe

Next the interview...........

 

[Tigger]

Ok Interview, were nearly there. This is a lot friendlier than assessment centre. This time they're interested in the kind of person you are. By this point they think you've got what it takes. This is about confidence, own the space you walk in ! Smile, firm hand shake, look them in the eye when you do it...thats important!!!! Its all about body language. It says I'm confident, sincere and ready. Introduce yourself if you need to, but be friendly. You will offered a seat, obviously don't slouch, never fold your arms or legs. If you sit facing them, sitting slightly forward it shows you are interested in what they are saying.
This may sound like BS but trust me, we get taught to read body language, it says tons about people without them ever opening they're mouth. You get taught it at police college, so you can see when people are lying.
Usually its two people interviewing, one takes the first half and the other takes the second half. Make sure you acknowledge both when answering questions form either. Don't focus on one person, and again look them in the eye.
First question, usually tell us about yourself. Start with birth, and move on till you left the mob. What they are looking for here is are you a confident speaker and can you talk.
Then it moves onto why do you want to be a police officer ? Be honest, I told them I always wanted to be one, BUT I qualified it by saying I wanted a job with responsibilty, that was dynamic and challenging day to day. I wanted to come into work and deal with different things each day.
Next we come to the stuff you'll need to study up on. Rank structure, National Police Model, Intellegence led policing, ministerial priorities, recent changes to policing ie SOCAP powers, any major operations, the structure of your force ie divisions, HQ's etc. What do you think a police officer deals with every day ?
Sometimes they will ask you ''How would you deal with....XYZ' Its simple stuff like ask if there any witnesses, if its a crowd ''did anyone see what happened or does anyone know this person ?''

Couple of things I picked up on interview that I was complemented on. I knew not only the divisions, but also the sectors within those Divs and the HQ's and who the OC's were. The comment that was made to me was 'you obviously have done you're homework and I don't think we need to ask you anything about ranks etc, and we moved on.
Make sure you know about issues affecting your force and what the force objectives are. Ie for us it's antis social behavior, vehicle crime, burglaries. These will usually mirror the national ministerial priorities.
It goes without saying, KNOW WHO THE CHIEF CONSTABLE IS ! LOL

If you do the homework for interview it will show, it did with me. I didn't flounder or waffle and I could fully answer their questions. If you don't know, say you don't know something, if you waffle they'll let you dig a hole !
I left the interview and was told I could give them a call, by the time I had driven home, there was a phone call to me saying I had the job.

 

[Tigger]

I ate slept and breathed police work for a year, I read everything I could on the internet, visited local officers. If you go along say who you are (ex RAF) and tel them you're going through selection, they will bend over backwards to help you out.
People with our kind of experience are rare and they want them, HOWEVER it's not a gimmie and I know of a couple of people who thought that and failed.

One other thing you'll all need to watch, military humour. I've noticed on the site a few anti gay comments. If you make a comment like that in this job you'll be sacked before you can say ''what have I done''. There are people in this job who will **** you over to get smarty points, I know I was a victim of it, she was on the same intake as me ! She went running to a trainer telling tales....watch your backs in this job, choose your friends carefully !!!

 

[Almost_done]

Cudos there Tigger, a nice guide. DT_Xtremez_30:

 

[Get Tae]

One question I have Tigger, it may sound stupid but, if you leave after 22 with a pension and join do you still get paid your RAF pension?

 

[Tigger]

Not sure exactly how it would work, I think you can get two. You need to do 30 years in the police to get a full one from them, thats why I commuted mine. You could do the same and get about 16 years worth leaving you 14 to do in the police. Remember you have to retire at 55 in this job.

Cudos there Tigger, a nice guide.

No problem, seriously if people have questions please ask, unless ur one of the muppets that troll in which case I'll just ignore you DT_Xtremez_31:
Judging by how quickly the potential police officer courses fill I know there are a lot of people considering joining.
You won't be the only person wondering the same thing, if you want to PM me thats fine to.

Tiggs

 

[wobbly]

One of my lads has just been knocked back. A great lad who is fit and has great charisma. He apparently had to write aboyt pressure situations he has been in. He submitted about being in Iraq and working through a mortar attack to get forces in and out. His friend put that the most pressure he went through was his school exams.......and they accepted him. His mate had been on the dole for X amount of years too.

Why is that do you reckon?

 

[Tigger]

I doubt it was just down to that. The thing i was told with the application is to use my RAF experiences in only 2 answers. What they are looking for is how you interact with people. He clearly didn't score well enough overall. I used working in Northern Ireland as my teamwork example, it was my lowest score on assessment centre. I still came in the top 20% in the country, but it just goes to show you not everyone is impressed by the military thing.

As I said, and it's very important, don't assume because your military you'll breeze it. You have an advantage if all things are equal, but thats it.

 

[littlegoldfishie]

Thanks for all this information, for me personally, its been ace!
I've applied for Tranche 3 and hope to be out by Xmas (paid til April 07). I have been toying with the police for a while, but the whole process scared me.
I guess I better get a shifty on and get my application in........
Thanks once again


Leah

 

[Bombhead]

One question I have Tigger, it may sound stupid but, if you leave after 22 with a pension and join do you still get paid your RAF pension?

DT_Xtremez_32:

I am the person that Tigger PM'ed the original answer and the question to two pensions is yes you can draw on your RAF pension and start a new one with the Police. How good is that.

 

[Get Tae]

Cheers Bombhead, thats good to know, maybe start thinking about it now, 2 years 9 months left.