About Us

Avatar for steve53990Steve53990

There are many roles within the police, being a police officer being just one of them. We employ police staff into civilian roles requiring a vast range of different skills and our police officers often take up many different roles across their careers. We feature a number of roles in this experience, but there are many, many more.

Rank structure

The police service is a ranked organisation. Every police officer wears epaulettes which enables you to identify their rank.

Our values

Whatever role you are within the police service, we expect you to hold the highest standards when you are working, both with the public and your colleagues. Have a look at the information here and consider how these fit with your own values.

Accountability

This means that holders of the public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to secure this.

Fairness

Police officers must show impartiality throughout their dealings with colleagues, partners and members of the public. This is achieved by being unprejudiced, fair and objective. Considering different sides of a situation and ensuring that each side is given equal consideration.

Honesty

Holders of the public off should be truthful, which includes being trustworthy, fair, loyal and sincere.

Integrity

Holders of the public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work.

Leadership

Holders of the public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and be willing to challenge poor behaviour when it occurs.

Objectivity

Holders of the public office must take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.

Openness

Holders of the public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for doing so.

Respect

You will treat everyone with respect, taking into consideration their feelings, wishes or rights. You must show respect for all people and their beliefs, values, cultures and individual needs. You must treat all people in a humane and dignified manner.

Selflessness

Holders of the public office should act solely in the interests of the public interest. Selflessness is the quality of caring more about what other people need and want than about what you yourself might need/want.

Police Phonetic Alphabet

A – Alpha
B – Bravo
C – Charlie
D – Delta
E – Echo
F – Foxtrot

G – Golf
H – Hotel
I – India
J – Juliet
K – Kilo
L – Lima

M – Mike
N – November
O – Oscar
P – Papa
Q – Quebec
R – Romeo

S – Sierra
T – Tango
U – Uniform
V – Victor
W – Whiskey
X – X-Ray

Y – Yankee
Z – Zulu

Scientific Services

Avatar for steve53990Steve53990

Scientific support services (also known as forensics) is an exciting opportunity for individuals with scientific skills. This role supports officers in often complex crimes and can help secure a conviction by finding evidence linking offenders to crime scenes.

Can you do it?

These roles require particular skills to do them well. Have a go at this interactive experience to see if you can identify finger prints.

Major Incidents

Avatar for steve53990Steve53990

The Police service can deal with major and critical incidents. These can often happen without warning and require a carefully co-ordinated approach. It requires leaders and staff to be objective and work calmly in often difficult situations.

Introduction

Major incidents are often complex and difficult incidents. It needs someone who can be calm and ready to make quick decisions.

Major incidents

An event or situation with a range of serious consequences which requires special arrangements to be implemented by one or more emergency responder agency.

Examples:

  • 2016 Croydon train derailment
  • 2019 London Bridge terror attack
  • 2020 floods in England and Wales

Critical Incidents

Any incident where the effectiveness of the police response is likely to have significant impact on the confidence of the victim, their family and/or the community.

Examples

  • 1993 Murder and investigation of black teenager Stephen Lawrence
  • 2011 Undercover police case against environmental activists

Strategy

In major incidents, there is a command structure that everyone involved responds to.

Gold (Strategic)

The strategic commander is a senior officer who has overall responsibility for the incident. They delegate tasks to both the silver and bronze commanders.

Silver (Tactical)

The tactical commander is responsible for co-ordinating multi-agency response and for directing police resources at the scene and elsewhere. They do not get involved in the tasks themselves, but task bronze commanders to assist them

Bronze (Operational)

Operational commanders have a specific geographic area. They have specific tasks such as establishing cordons, maintaining security and managing traffic

Priorities

In this next section, we look at the priorities we need to deal with.

1. Saving Lives

The first priority is to work with other emergency services to save lives, reduce harm and prevent any further injuries or loss of life.

2. Health and Safety

We are responsible for the safety of the public and to prevent the incident from escelating. We need to make quick risk assessments and share them with other services (fire, emulance etc.). We must also make sure that all personnel at the incident are kept safe too.

3. Multi-agency co-ordination

We are responsible for co-ordinating all of the people involved (ambulance, fire, local authority etc.). This means telling the other services what to do.

4. Identifying agency leads

We need to identify who is the lead for each service at the incident and work with them to achieve the best result.

Every emergency lead should have a tabard that shows who they are.

5. Cordons and Traffic

We are responsible for cordons and traffic management. We will work with the highways authorities to identify new routes for traffic to avoid the incident.

6. Protect the scene

Because this may also be a crime scene, we are responsible for securing and preserving evidence unless life is at risk.

Taking a call

Taking a call

This video explains how the control room receives information about an incident and how resources are allocated.

METHANE

METHANE

The second video explains how the METHANE mnemonic is useful in supporting the lead officer to deal with an incident.

Joint Decision Model

Joint Decision Model

Having established a major incident, senior leads from each service will co-locate at a forward command post. At this point they will adopt the Joint Decision Model (JDM) to determine their priority actions.

IIMARCH

IIMARCH

Find out how each service lead determines their own priorities using the IIMARCH mnemonic.

Debrief

Debrief

After any major incident is complete, it is reviewed by all services involved to see what worked well and what learning can be taken from it to improve response to future incidents.

Control Room

Avatar for steve53990Steve53990

The control room is an essential part of police operational activity. It’s staff oversee the allocation of policing resources such as response officers to incidents and crimes and it’s call handlers take information from the public to ensure that officers attending locations are prepared and safe.

Key Staff

  • Police Inspectors oversee the activity within the control room and support major incidents

  • Radio Dispatch Operators (RDOs) instruct police resources (officers) where to attend taking into account priority and risk.

  • Call Handlers receive emergency (999 calls) and non-emergency (101 calls) from the public collating the key information they receive and sending it to the appropriate place, often radio operators.

Control room staff

In these videos, some of our staff talk about the roles within the control room. In what can be an intense environment, they talk about the skills needed in doing their roles and what their job involves, from talking with distressed members of the public to prioritising incidents to ensure the most important incidents are dealt with first.

Can you do it?

These roles require particular skills to do them well. Have a go at this interactive experience to see how well you can prioritise incidents.