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My daughter is at a bit of a career crossroads and has always fancied joining the police.
She went to an open day at the local police HQ at the weekend and found it very useful and she's seriously thinking of applying to become a Special Constable as a toe-in-the water way of seeing what the job is like with an easy get out if she hates it!
She can easily fit the required hours in around her current work as she is freelance so controls her own hours.
I think it's a good idea but my only concern is is it then hard to transition from Special to full-time PC - do they see you as free-labour so reluctant to take you in a paid roll?
Ta!
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My Wife did a couple of years as a Special, before joining the Police for real.
I think it helped her get a foot in the door come application time for becoming full-time.
A lot of the questions on the application form were about describing scenarios that you had dealt with - conflict resolution, racism etc. and because she had a couple of years of recent, real-world experience she was able to use them as examples and expand on them in the interview. It also meant when she started the job full-time she was much more familiar with the processes, requirements and details of the job (all of the paperwork etc.) so was in a better place to decide whether it was something that she actually wanted to do.
I don't think there were any aspects of it that hindered her application to a full-time role. But, it was hard-work for a voluntary role.
I spent 6/7 years as one back in the 90s and really enjoyed it. It was a great insight into job police do and really interesting and rewarding. Spent time doing all sorts of things from court, sport events like marathons/football matches to walking the beat/driving around on general shift work answering various calls that would come up. Saw lots of things, some good, some bad and one or two that I still think about from time to time. I always found the regular cops helpful and seemed to appreciate the extra help provided.Â
Answering phone calls from STWers reporting suspected drink drivers
Better than calling the cops to say you've witnessed a fatal, eh? Or worse, had the FLO pop round to tell you a family member has died.Â
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Nob.Â
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Answering phone calls from STWers reporting suspected drink drivers
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Better than calling the cops to say you've witnessed a fatal, eh? Or worse, had the FLO pop round to tell you a family member has died.Â
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Nob.Â
I see humour is in short supply today, and it's Mr Nob thank you very much.
Oh 5hit, hilarious. My bad.Â
See being a special as a good way to "try before you buy" without committing to the full training of 20ish weeks at police college.
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Will give your daughter good examples of situations you can talk about in an interview for being a full officer if she decides that's what she wants.
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It will definitely not be detrimental to her recruitment to being a full time officer and she may be able to use officers / sergeants as referees. They will not keep her as free labour in preference to recruiting a full time paid officer.
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She shouldn't expect that once she goes full time she would be posted to the same station / team she worked with as a special.
A mate who I worked with went the special route, now a full timer and loving it.
Answering phone calls from STWers reporting suspected drink drivers
Clearly missed by others - but I thought this was quite funny. Excellent work.Â
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I think the "try before you buy" option is a great idea. The new series of Traffic Cops on Channel 5 started yesterday and it's Derbyshire again....
And they do get involved in proper unpleasant stuff as well. Back in the 90s a colleague became a special and her very first shift included the recovery aspect after someone stepped in front of the Gatwick Express. She was obviously pretty shaken, her comment "glad i didn't find the head" ****ed up the whole office when she eventually shared the story.
There are downsides to being a special - just as there are to being a full time officer: dealing with the public, getting shouted at, spat at, used to mop up our shocking mental health provision, seeing the worst side of society (is she ready to turn up to do a welfare check and find a dead body, or be threatened by a junky with a needle?), being expected to put yourself in harms way, upholding relatively high standards of behaviour all the time, having to turn up to police Trump or others you dislike, being tarnished with the same brush as the high profile met chaos cases, being regarded as scum by a section of society who probably need your help more than most! But this:
my only concern is is it then hard to transition from Special to full-time PC - do they see you as free-labour so reluctant to take you in a paid roll?
is not one of them. It is quite a common route into the police - and I think many forces see it as a useful way to find good officers and people who know what they are getting into (so probably more likely to stay). I have a friend who has been a special for nearly 20 years, and is asked every year to apply to go full time.
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Thank you, glad my sense of humour isn't lost on everyone!
I thought it was quite witty too.
The well known documentary on BBC Scotland called Scots Squad might be worth a study...
A mate who I worked with went the special route, now a full timer and loving it
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Same here. She's been a full timer for around 15 years and has had various roles, beat Bobby, accident investigation, and youth outreach. She started as a special because she left school with few qualifications so couldn't join conventionally.
I don't think there is a downsides to the job, oh wait ... apart from perhaps attending of horrible crime scene or someone puking or spitting when arrested. Should train to be a firearm officer.Â
Should train to be a firearm officer.Â
aside from the fun of shooting guns in training why the recommendation for this?
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Thanks everyone!
Got back home yesterday and she's already applied so we'll see what happens.