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I've been interested in becoming a police officer for many years, but my career path led in a different direction after university. 15 years on I'm now on a good income, and could never afford to become a 'real' police officer.
But recently, redundancy came looming on the horizon. I'll be out of work by March. So I thought I'd fill the time looking for a new job by signing up to be a Special Constable. I filled out the forms last month, and I've been asked to go sit the initial entrance exam and do the fitness test in February.
Is anyone on here in the police force? What's the reality of being a special constable, versus my rather limited knowledge of it? Any tips for the selection process?
P.S. I've only told my wife about this. She thinks I'm mad. I suspect the same reaction from most people, so am keeping it hush-hush for now. Hence new user name.
Can't advise you on becoming a Special but when I graduated with modern languages I toyed with the idea of graduate entry into the Police, hoping that a degree in languages could get me into something quite interesting on a European scale. However I was so dismayed at the reaction of the couple of pals I told that I dropped the idea. So you're better off keeping quiet about it for the moment.
lots of Babylon on here, usually struggling to smear the donut dribble off the keyboard before one-finger-typing so takes a while to respond.
Reality of being a special is doing everything that a salaried officer does, and if you work somewhere with reasonably intelligent supervisors you'll be crewed with full timers and going to decent jobs as you'll be a valued resource.
I had a student special come out on my shift, within 2 hours of his first day he'd had a scrap with a rape suspect at the scene of the crime and we'd seized his trousers for possible cross contamination.
Can't comment on the selection process I'm afraid.
15 years on I'm now on a good income, and could never afford to become a 'real' police officer.
If you're a graduate facing redundancy you might want to look at some of our direct entry schemes
Special constable Ken Beattie from Scot squad may give an insight but may only be broadcast bbc Scotland
Depends on what part of the UK your in.
Here in Scotland, Specials sit the same entrance exams and initial fitness as the regulars.
SET's are a doddle, as you'll see if you download the practice papers. For maths you can use a calc, its standard grade level (gcse's) so pretty hard to fail if you have anything between the ears. Most folk fail as they either don't read the question correctly or on grammar/ spelling or units(i.e. m instead of km).
Fitness is a bleep test here, get to a certain level for your age category, under 30's its not much faster than an average 5K pace, key is not going fast at the start and running ahead of the bleep. Top tip would be, remembering your foot only has to touch the line, not cross it then turn. Save yourself a metre right there.
Go one better than plod and join the fire service as a retained Ff- they'll even pay you for it!
Don't forget a pillow and your table tennis bat 😉
My Wife was a Special for a couple of years before joining up as a proper Dibble.
She had missed entry slots a couple of times & then applied to Northampton & didn't get in. Someone advised her that signing up to be a Special would help her with her application when the time came.
She loved it. It was hard work on top of her full-time job, but she gained a really good idea of what it would be like.
Admittedly, the pay freezes, reduction in pension etc. that occurred not long after she actually got a full time job in the Police hasn't exactly done much for her enthusiasm, but hey ho....
Regarding the fitness test - if you have some modicum of fitness I doubt you will struggle. My Wife is strong, but not very good at cardio stuff - she managed the fitness test with a bit of training. We found an MP3 of the bleep test & used to do it at the gym together. I am reasonably fit, but not massively so & was barely out of breath by the pass point for the Police....
I was a Special in the Met for 6 years until recently and its's one of the best things I've ever done. The more you put in, the more you'll get out of it, but location and attitude towards specials will also have an impact of what you get out of it.
Specialist training isn't always available to Specials as it's not cost effective, but you still have the potential to get involved in all sorts.
My friend said that the fitness test for the Met was harder than the one for the TA.
Is a special the same as a PCSO? Our PCSOs are being given powers to issue penalty notices . They are not happy as their role is currently non confrontational but that will change.
Entirely dependant on Skippers and above, both regular and SC. There are still some ****s in the Job who dislike Specials for some unknown reason - I have seen them treated poorly on some occasions, but also seen SCs indistinguishable from regular Officers.
If you are keen, enthusiastic and find a good team to regularly work with, you'll quickly be a valued part of a close team, experience some fairly spectacular sights and have a huge amount of fun.
If you are anywhere close to Thames Valley Police area I can very easily organise a ride along for a shift or two, which will help cut through the recruitment guff and see what it's really like. Failing that, walk into your local nick and ask to do a ride along. Anyone can do it (by arrangement) with a minimum of fuss.
No a Special is a full blown police officer with the same sworn in powers but you work voluntarily. A PCSO is employed by Police to do community stuff with far less powers. Given powers to give penalty notices? They have a lot of those powers already but some of it depends on what the Chief constable of each force gives their PCSO's!
I was a full time copper for 13 years having left las year. As people have already said if you're willing to put the effort in you can achieve a lot and get a great sense of satisfaction but without a lot of political BS that goes with it. A significant amount does still depend on the area you get posted and the staff you get posted with. About 9 years ago I worked on the City Centre Unit in Oxford on foot beat and I had a special that would always come out on Friday/Saturday night when I was on duty. We had a right laugh, I flung her in all the confrontational situations, she loved it and learnt a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed training her and seeing her develop from a shy retiring woman lacking confidence to someone who would lead the foot chase and fight of the drug dealer we caught!
Just go in with your eyes open and be prepared to be flexible and amazed, but hopefully incredibly satisfying.
Fitness test is a walk in the park - level 5.2 on a bleep test, which equates to a 600m run in four minutes. On joining the Police straight from the Army, I got to 14.2...
Munge-chick; our paths may have crossed I suspect. I worked Response in Abingdon from 2003 until 2009.
Si yes you know me if you knew my real name 😉 I was Didcot 2003-2005 then moved to Oxford CCU!
My brother was one until rececently.
If you'd like to ask him, I'm sure he can help.
email me and I'll forard any email.
makecoldplayhistory@gmil.com
if you knew my real name
You mean that's not your real name 😉
Munquella Chicklet?
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Sorry was wiping the doughnut dribble off my keyboard. What was the question again ?
I'm in Scotland by the way.
Fitness test doesn't worry me. The language test was a bit more worrying. I'm totally reliant on auto correct these days. I did the example test and got several wrong. What's the pass score?
I'm in Scotland by the way....The language test was a bit more worrying.
I transferred to Scotland from an English force, and to he honest, the language in most of the country hasn't been too much of a problem. As long as you get the weegies to slow down a bit you can usually understand them after a few goes.
I was a special with Surrey and Dyfed-Powys for 20 years. email me and I'll return with my phone number. I'd be happy to chat.
Rich.
A ride along sounds like the best plan of action actually. Any of you guys based in Aberdeenshire?
Fitness test doesn't worry me.
Quoting myself here just to teach myself a lesson in humility. Just did a beep test in the garden and only just managed to get to the required level 8.8 on second attempt, but am totally spent. The English only have to make level 5!
