joining the police
21 February 2009, 06:04 PM
#31
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21 February 2009, 06:05 PM
#32
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5.4 for the bleep test is real low,when i did the the bleep test when joining the forces i got to level 14,and if i remember rightly the minimum was level 9 or 10 can't remember exact was few yrs ago..when ya get to age 30 join the firearms unit buy an MR2 and live with your mum...
21 February 2009, 06:06 PM
#33
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Ant, as long as you are willing to answer some questions about your background etc...
Be suprised how many cant achieve even that score on the bleep mate.
Be suprised how many cant achieve even that score on the bleep mate.
21 February 2009, 06:23 PM
#36
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The fitness levels/strength levels were lowered to enable more females to enter the force. This however also means that it was lowered for males as to have a higher fitness requirement for the men would have resulted is discrimination issues.
Certain disciplines within the force require higher (but equal for male/female officers) levels of fitness such as dog handlers have to be able to run faster to pursue the dog and be able to handle/lift a GSD. Firearms officers have to pass intensive courses in full kit, with weapons and still pass higher level of beep test over a three day assessment.
Ant, there are questions in the application and vetting forms which ask about any previou sservice in HM Forces that you'll need to answer. Out of the chaps on my cohort one is ex-Royal Marines, one is ex-Grenadier Guard and one is ex-Army Musician (he played the triangle
).
As long as you can use your past experience to pass the initial stages then it will put you in good stead as far as I see it in terms of being used to discipline, having a rank structure, being comfortable in uniform and I expect you're used to being under pressure. After two years as a response cop, you'll be then able to look at areas that interest you, armed response, sniper, etc which coming from a military background may be easy for you to pick up.
If you have £7.50 spare, this book is a good read: How to Pass the New Police Selection System: Practise for the Psychometric Tests and Succeed at the Assessment Centres: Harry Tolley, Billy Hodge, Catherine Tolley: Amazon.co.uk: Books
For vacancies: Police service recruitment - Could You? - How do I apply?
Certain disciplines within the force require higher (but equal for male/female officers) levels of fitness such as dog handlers have to be able to run faster to pursue the dog and be able to handle/lift a GSD. Firearms officers have to pass intensive courses in full kit, with weapons and still pass higher level of beep test over a three day assessment.
Ant, there are questions in the application and vetting forms which ask about any previou sservice in HM Forces that you'll need to answer. Out of the chaps on my cohort one is ex-Royal Marines, one is ex-Grenadier Guard and one is ex-Army Musician (he played the triangle
). As long as you can use your past experience to pass the initial stages then it will put you in good stead as far as I see it in terms of being used to discipline, having a rank structure, being comfortable in uniform and I expect you're used to being under pressure. After two years as a response cop, you'll be then able to look at areas that interest you, armed response, sniper, etc which coming from a military background may be easy for you to pick up.
If you have £7.50 spare, this book is a good read: How to Pass the New Police Selection System: Practise for the Psychometric Tests and Succeed at the Assessment Centres: Harry Tolley, Billy Hodge, Catherine Tolley: Amazon.co.uk: Books
For vacancies: Police service recruitment - Could You? - How do I apply?
Last edited by ScoobyWon't; 21 February 2009 at 06:26 PM.
21 February 2009, 08:23 PM
#39
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I'm waiting for a start date on a training course.
I've been a PCSO for four years come Easter. I wouldv'e been in ages ago but for a weird local policy someone in HR set up (I'm sure the others on here who work for the Plod will have nothing but praise for those wonderful folks in HR departments
)
This is an emotive subject for me so apologies for the very long story
I sent off my application form in Sept 06, had me fitness test just before Christmas 06 (and was quite shocked how easy it was. And also embarresed to see how unprepared some candidates were - some even failed!).
That April I got to the assessment centre. This is really the key part of the current recruitment system. The most important part of the assessment centre itself, where most of your final score comes from are four short scenarios where you interact with an actor playing a specific part. There's an assessor in the room who grades how you react and how you deal with the actor and the scenario they give you. You get five min with the actor and 5 min to read through the problem and prepare your response before you go in.
At that time I'd been a PCSO for 18 months and I realised that these scenarios they were testing you with were just the same as when an incident comes in at work. You look through the infomation and find the areas that need dealing with. You deal with as much of the problem as your able to then bring in the help of other agencies. As an example, when you have a neighbourhood dispute with two households at each other if they're in council houses then you involve the local council and the ASB Team to help.
You deal with the problem and act as the point man but involve others who just it is to deal with specific types of problems. Signposting as my boss calls it
It turns out the assessment centre sees things a bit differently. When I got my results few weeks later I scored 98.2% on 'Team Working' and 7% on 'Personal Responsibility'. All my other scores such as Problem solving and Personal Resiliance where between 80-90%.
So I came out with a final score of 62%. I wasn't too fussed because as far as I knew a pass was a pass.
6 months later in August 07 I had my medical. I'd had corrective eye surgery done the year before and the Doc wasn't 100% happy with my distance vision in one eye. I was able to get a tweak done on it. This took a few months to sort and I missed an intake. Come last March the Force Doctor had left and they were using a part-time Doc so to save time I got an eyesight form off of the official Police recruitment website signed by a highstreet optician. I took it to HR but they said I had to get signed off by Occupational Health. Two visits later, one to the Nurse then to the temp Doctor I was signed off. This took until June of last year to sort.
Since then I've been passed over for two training courses.
One last August and one a few weeks back.
It turns out that just after my fitness test they moved the goalposts. Every other force in the country (And I've checked with just about all of them) operates a system where you pass one stage you move onto the next. Once you've passed everything my lot go back to your assessment centre score and put the recruits in a list dependant on these scores highest to lowest. For each course they then take the top scoring candidates.
The force also doesn't have a final interview. So at no stage are you asked to justify why you want to Police my bit of England. All the other forces have an assessment centre pass rate of 50%, mine's 60% to compensate
Now comes the fun bit:
Then they recruit more candidates even though there are still people waiting for start dates and add them to the list. They ignore how long you've been on the list and never ever get in touch with you to keep you up to date.
So technically for me with what they call "a low final score" I could never get a start date.
I cant transfer elsewhere as it's been over 12 months since the assessment centre.
When I caused a bit of a stink the head of recruitment responded by sending me a letter telling me that I'd have to retake my assessment centre as after 18 months it runs out all together. Fortunately his letter started off by putting my assessment centre date 6 months before it actually happend and then went on with a stream of errors about me.
By this time there was a review underway into the whole recruitment process.
I'd been to see my divisional senior management but all they could do was contact HR for them to get in touch with me - which they never have done.
Thankfully the ACC is married to a friend of mine. I emailed her and she instgated a review. Four months later there's a meeting of the Chief Officer group this week where I'll find out my fate.
The good thing is all the Police Officers see the idiocy in whats gone on.
Antc, I hope this doesn't but you off as I really enjoy what I do. Last Summer I caught a burglar using stolen debit cards at cash machine and trailed him to where he was living where he got nicked and a load of stolen property got recovered. Recently from intel I put in a house got searched and a decent load of dope and stolen property got recovered. There's three more warrants waiting to be dealt with from intel I've put in. Last week I came in for an evening shift and learned a guy had robbed one of the local newsagents with a knife that morning. CID were stumped so I went out and spoke to some of my local snouts and two hours later the bloke got arrested.
Stuff like that gives you such a buzz out of the job.
You have a right laugh with the people you work with and some of the situations you and your colleagues get into. That for me is the best part of it.
If you can brush off the idiots and their stupid comments and not let the job get to you then it can be great.
If you speak to some of the 'propper coppers' they'll give you an idea what the job's like for them and where they work. Each force is different and the area where you work will affect what the job's like - obvious I know but an importnat point
I've helped some mates through the recruitment process so if there's anything I can help with please dont hesitate
Once again apologies for the verbal diarrhea put I'm pi55ed and there's nothing on telly
I've been a PCSO for four years come Easter. I wouldv'e been in ages ago but for a weird local policy someone in HR set up (I'm sure the others on here who work for the Plod will have nothing but praise for those wonderful folks in HR departments
) This is an emotive subject for me so apologies for the very long story
I sent off my application form in Sept 06, had me fitness test just before Christmas 06 (and was quite shocked how easy it was. And also embarresed to see how unprepared some candidates were - some even failed!).
That April I got to the assessment centre. This is really the key part of the current recruitment system. The most important part of the assessment centre itself, where most of your final score comes from are four short scenarios where you interact with an actor playing a specific part. There's an assessor in the room who grades how you react and how you deal with the actor and the scenario they give you. You get five min with the actor and 5 min to read through the problem and prepare your response before you go in.
At that time I'd been a PCSO for 18 months and I realised that these scenarios they were testing you with were just the same as when an incident comes in at work. You look through the infomation and find the areas that need dealing with. You deal with as much of the problem as your able to then bring in the help of other agencies. As an example, when you have a neighbourhood dispute with two households at each other if they're in council houses then you involve the local council and the ASB Team to help.
You deal with the problem and act as the point man but involve others who just it is to deal with specific types of problems. Signposting as my boss calls it
It turns out the assessment centre sees things a bit differently. When I got my results few weeks later I scored 98.2% on 'Team Working' and 7% on 'Personal Responsibility'. All my other scores such as Problem solving and Personal Resiliance where between 80-90%.
So I came out with a final score of 62%. I wasn't too fussed because as far as I knew a pass was a pass.
6 months later in August 07 I had my medical. I'd had corrective eye surgery done the year before and the Doc wasn't 100% happy with my distance vision in one eye. I was able to get a tweak done on it. This took a few months to sort and I missed an intake. Come last March the Force Doctor had left and they were using a part-time Doc so to save time I got an eyesight form off of the official Police recruitment website signed by a highstreet optician. I took it to HR but they said I had to get signed off by Occupational Health. Two visits later, one to the Nurse then to the temp Doctor I was signed off. This took until June of last year to sort.
Since then I've been passed over for two training courses.
One last August and one a few weeks back.
It turns out that just after my fitness test they moved the goalposts. Every other force in the country (And I've checked with just about all of them) operates a system where you pass one stage you move onto the next. Once you've passed everything my lot go back to your assessment centre score and put the recruits in a list dependant on these scores highest to lowest. For each course they then take the top scoring candidates.
The force also doesn't have a final interview. So at no stage are you asked to justify why you want to Police my bit of England. All the other forces have an assessment centre pass rate of 50%, mine's 60% to compensate
Now comes the fun bit:
Then they recruit more candidates even though there are still people waiting for start dates and add them to the list. They ignore how long you've been on the list and never ever get in touch with you to keep you up to date.
So technically for me with what they call "a low final score" I could never get a start date.
I cant transfer elsewhere as it's been over 12 months since the assessment centre.
When I caused a bit of a stink the head of recruitment responded by sending me a letter telling me that I'd have to retake my assessment centre as after 18 months it runs out all together. Fortunately his letter started off by putting my assessment centre date 6 months before it actually happend and then went on with a stream of errors about me.
By this time there was a review underway into the whole recruitment process.
I'd been to see my divisional senior management but all they could do was contact HR for them to get in touch with me - which they never have done.
Thankfully the ACC is married to a friend of mine. I emailed her and she instgated a review. Four months later there's a meeting of the Chief Officer group this week where I'll find out my fate.
The good thing is all the Police Officers see the idiocy in whats gone on.
Antc, I hope this doesn't but you off as I really enjoy what I do. Last Summer I caught a burglar using stolen debit cards at cash machine and trailed him to where he was living where he got nicked and a load of stolen property got recovered. Recently from intel I put in a house got searched and a decent load of dope and stolen property got recovered. There's three more warrants waiting to be dealt with from intel I've put in. Last week I came in for an evening shift and learned a guy had robbed one of the local newsagents with a knife that morning. CID were stumped so I went out and spoke to some of my local snouts and two hours later the bloke got arrested.
Stuff like that gives you such a buzz out of the job.
You have a right laugh with the people you work with and some of the situations you and your colleagues get into. That for me is the best part of it.
If you can brush off the idiots and their stupid comments and not let the job get to you then it can be great.
If you speak to some of the 'propper coppers' they'll give you an idea what the job's like for them and where they work. Each force is different and the area where you work will affect what the job's like - obvious I know but an importnat point
I've helped some mates through the recruitment process so if there's anything I can help with please dont hesitate
Once again apologies for the verbal diarrhea put I'm pi55ed and there's nothing on telly
21 February 2009, 11:19 PM
#40
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I'm waiting for a start date on a training course.
I've been a PCSO for four years come Easter. I wouldv'e been in ages ago but for a weird local policy someone in HR set up (I'm sure the others on here who work for the Plod will have nothing but praise for those wonderful folks in HR departments)
This is an emotive subject for me so apologies for the very long story
I sent off my application form in Sept 06, had me fitness test just before Christmas 06 (and was quite shocked how easy it was. And also embarresed to see how unprepared some candidates were - some even failed!).
That April I got to the assessment centre. This is really the key part of the current recruitment system. The most important part of the assessment centre itself, where most of your final score comes from are four short scenarios where you interact with an actor playing a specific part. There's an assessor in the room who grades how you react and how you deal with the actor and the scenario they give you. You get five min with the actor and 5 min to read through the problem and prepare your response before you go in.
At that time I'd been a PCSO for 18 months and I realised that these scenarios they were testing you with were just the same as when an incident comes in at work. You look through the infomation and find the areas that need dealing with. You deal with as much of the problem as your able to then bring in the help of other agencies. As an example, when you have a neighbourhood dispute with two households at each other if they're in council houses then you involve the local council and the ASB Team to help.
You deal with the problem and act as the point man but involve others who just it is to deal with specific types of problems. Signposting as my boss calls it
It turns out the assessment centre sees things a bit differently. When I got my results few weeks later I scored 98.2% on 'Team Working' and 7% on 'Personal Responsibility'. All my other scores such as Problem solving and Personal Resiliance where between 80-90%.
So I came out with a final score of 62%. I wasn't too fussed because as far as I knew a pass was a pass.
6 months later in August 07 I had my medical. I'd had corrective eye surgery done the year before and the Doc wasn't 100% happy with my distance vision in one eye. I was able to get a tweak done on it. This took a few months to sort and I missed an intake. Come last March the Force Doctor had left and they were using a part-time Doc so to save time I got an eyesight form off of the official Police recruitment website signed by a highstreet optician. I took it to HR but they said I had to get signed off by Occupational Health. Two visits later, one to the Nurse then to the temp Doctor I was signed off. This took until June of last year to sort.
Since then I've been passed over for two training courses.
One last August and one a few weeks back.
It turns out that just after my fitness test they moved the goalposts. Every other force in the country (And I've checked with just about all of them) operates a system where you pass one stage you move onto the next. Once you've passed everything my lot go back to your assessment centre score and put the recruits in a list dependant on these scores highest to lowest. For each course they then take the top scoring candidates.
The force also doesn't have a final interview. So at no stage are you asked to justify why you want to Police my bit of England. All the other forces have an assessment centre pass rate of 50%, mine's 60% to compensate
Now comes the fun bit:
Then they recruit more candidates even though there are still people waiting for start dates and add them to the list. They ignore how long you've been on the list and never ever get in touch with you to keep you up to date.
So technically for me with what they call "a low final score" I could never get a start date.
I cant transfer elsewhere as it's been over 12 months since the assessment centre.
When I caused a bit of a stink the head of recruitment responded by sending me a letter telling me that I'd have to retake my assessment centre as after 18 months it runs out all together. Fortunately his letter started off by putting my assessment centre date 6 months before it actually happend and then went on with a stream of errors about me.
By this time there was a review underway into the whole recruitment process.
I'd been to see my divisional senior management but all they could do was contact HR for them to get in touch with me - which they never have done.
Thankfully the ACC is married to a friend of mine. I emailed her and she instgated a review. Four months later there's a meeting of the Chief Officer group this week where I'll find out my fate.
The good thing is all the Police Officers see the idiocy in whats gone on.
Antc, I hope this doesn't but you off as I really enjoy what I do. Last Summer I caught a burglar using stolen debit cards at cash machine and trailed him to where he was living where he got nicked and a load of stolen property got recovered. Recently from intel I put in a house got searched and a decent load of dope and stolen property got recovered. There's three more warrants waiting to be dealt with from intel I've put in. Last week I came in for an evening shift and learned a guy had robbed one of the local newsagents with a knife that morning. CID were stumped so I went out and spoke to some of my local snouts and two hours later the bloke got arrested.
Stuff like that gives you such a buzz out of the job.
You have a right laugh with the people you work with and some of the situations you and your colleagues get into. That for me is the best part of it.
If you can brush off the idiots and their stupid comments and not let the job get to you then it can be great.
If you speak to some of the 'propper coppers' they'll give you an idea what the job's like for them and where they work. Each force is different and the area where you work will affect what the job's like - obvious I know but an importnat point
I've helped some mates through the recruitment process so if there's anything I can help with please dont hesitate
Once again apologies for the verbal diarrhea put I'm pi55ed and there's nothing on telly
I've been a PCSO for four years come Easter. I wouldv'e been in ages ago but for a weird local policy someone in HR set up (I'm sure the others on here who work for the Plod will have nothing but praise for those wonderful folks in HR departments
) This is an emotive subject for me so apologies for the very long story
I sent off my application form in Sept 06, had me fitness test just before Christmas 06 (and was quite shocked how easy it was. And also embarresed to see how unprepared some candidates were - some even failed!).
That April I got to the assessment centre. This is really the key part of the current recruitment system. The most important part of the assessment centre itself, where most of your final score comes from are four short scenarios where you interact with an actor playing a specific part. There's an assessor in the room who grades how you react and how you deal with the actor and the scenario they give you. You get five min with the actor and 5 min to read through the problem and prepare your response before you go in.
At that time I'd been a PCSO for 18 months and I realised that these scenarios they were testing you with were just the same as when an incident comes in at work. You look through the infomation and find the areas that need dealing with. You deal with as much of the problem as your able to then bring in the help of other agencies. As an example, when you have a neighbourhood dispute with two households at each other if they're in council houses then you involve the local council and the ASB Team to help.
You deal with the problem and act as the point man but involve others who just it is to deal with specific types of problems. Signposting as my boss calls it
It turns out the assessment centre sees things a bit differently. When I got my results few weeks later I scored 98.2% on 'Team Working' and 7% on 'Personal Responsibility'. All my other scores such as Problem solving and Personal Resiliance where between 80-90%.
So I came out with a final score of 62%. I wasn't too fussed because as far as I knew a pass was a pass.
6 months later in August 07 I had my medical. I'd had corrective eye surgery done the year before and the Doc wasn't 100% happy with my distance vision in one eye. I was able to get a tweak done on it. This took a few months to sort and I missed an intake. Come last March the Force Doctor had left and they were using a part-time Doc so to save time I got an eyesight form off of the official Police recruitment website signed by a highstreet optician. I took it to HR but they said I had to get signed off by Occupational Health. Two visits later, one to the Nurse then to the temp Doctor I was signed off. This took until June of last year to sort.
Since then I've been passed over for two training courses.
One last August and one a few weeks back.
It turns out that just after my fitness test they moved the goalposts. Every other force in the country (And I've checked with just about all of them) operates a system where you pass one stage you move onto the next. Once you've passed everything my lot go back to your assessment centre score and put the recruits in a list dependant on these scores highest to lowest. For each course they then take the top scoring candidates.
The force also doesn't have a final interview. So at no stage are you asked to justify why you want to Police my bit of England. All the other forces have an assessment centre pass rate of 50%, mine's 60% to compensate
Now comes the fun bit:
Then they recruit more candidates even though there are still people waiting for start dates and add them to the list. They ignore how long you've been on the list and never ever get in touch with you to keep you up to date.
So technically for me with what they call "a low final score" I could never get a start date.
I cant transfer elsewhere as it's been over 12 months since the assessment centre.
When I caused a bit of a stink the head of recruitment responded by sending me a letter telling me that I'd have to retake my assessment centre as after 18 months it runs out all together. Fortunately his letter started off by putting my assessment centre date 6 months before it actually happend and then went on with a stream of errors about me.
By this time there was a review underway into the whole recruitment process.
I'd been to see my divisional senior management but all they could do was contact HR for them to get in touch with me - which they never have done.
Thankfully the ACC is married to a friend of mine. I emailed her and she instgated a review. Four months later there's a meeting of the Chief Officer group this week where I'll find out my fate.
The good thing is all the Police Officers see the idiocy in whats gone on.
Antc, I hope this doesn't but you off as I really enjoy what I do. Last Summer I caught a burglar using stolen debit cards at cash machine and trailed him to where he was living where he got nicked and a load of stolen property got recovered. Recently from intel I put in a house got searched and a decent load of dope and stolen property got recovered. There's three more warrants waiting to be dealt with from intel I've put in. Last week I came in for an evening shift and learned a guy had robbed one of the local newsagents with a knife that morning. CID were stumped so I went out and spoke to some of my local snouts and two hours later the bloke got arrested.
Stuff like that gives you such a buzz out of the job.
You have a right laugh with the people you work with and some of the situations you and your colleagues get into. That for me is the best part of it.
If you can brush off the idiots and their stupid comments and not let the job get to you then it can be great.
If you speak to some of the 'propper coppers' they'll give you an idea what the job's like for them and where they work. Each force is different and the area where you work will affect what the job's like - obvious I know but an importnat point
I've helped some mates through the recruitment process so if there's anything I can help with please dont hesitate
Once again apologies for the verbal diarrhea put I'm pi55ed and there's nothing on telly
, but best of luck
21 February 2009, 11:29 PM
#41
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This thread is good, as I'm looking to join the Police too...the only thing that worries me is the eyesight bit...I wear glasses sometimes!
Scoobywon't...you give good advice & info...I've copied & pasted to Word lol...I'll also be buying that book. Thanks!
Scoobywon't...you give good advice & info...I've copied & pasted to Word lol...I'll also be buying that book. Thanks!
21 February 2009, 11:40 PM
#44
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21 February 2009, 11:44 PM
#45
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There's minimum standard, but it need not be perfect.
Do some searches regarding medical standards. No point wasting our time and effort if you fall below
Do some searches regarding medical standards. No point wasting our time and effort if you fall below
22 February 2009, 01:30 AM
#46
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I wear lenses to correct my vision. Corrected vision is good enough. Nothing to worry about (I'd suggest taking contact lenses out before you get CS'd)
Last edited by ScoobyWon't; 22 February 2009 at 01:35 AM.
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