Careers - Working as a Police Officer
The LINC spoke to 26 year-old PC Andrew Doran about life in the police to find out exactly what a PC’s job is, whether he’d recommend it as a career and, if you’re thinking of joining the police, how to go about it.
What’s your job title?
Police Constable for Leigh West neighbourhood.
How long have you been doing this job?
Just over four years. I’m twenty six now and started when I was twenty two.
What’s the daily routine for a Police Constable?
The thing about this job is that it doesn’t allow for a routine; many things change in seconds.
It should be driving public confidence and reducing crime, especially in areas like burglary and theft, but the beauty is that it changes so much; nothing’s ever boring and I like that.
Would you say that’s the best it of your job?
The diversity is the best bit. It’s quite a challenging role and you’re always learning, which is good.
The other best bits are getting out and about meeting people and making a difference.
It’s probably a bit of a cliché that you want to help people, but if you asked most of us here, we’d all say that helping people and making a difference is something they always wanted.
Sometimes it can be the smallest experiences that confirm you’re in the right job.
Can you give any examples?
There was a man whose wife was in a nursing home. She was moved into a new home, but he didn’t know which one it was, the address of it or anything and he was obviously quite upset at not being able to find his wife.
So we took him round to the different nursing homes in the car until he found her. It was such a small thing to do for someone, but things like that make you glad you do this job.
What would you say are the worst bits of the job?
There’s a lot of paperwork, and a lot of it can be quite repetitive.
There’s also the element where you’re dealing with death, which is never nice for anyone.
That’s another thing about working in the police; you tend to find that when you meet people, you’re meeting them at their lowest points. We need to be constantly motivated for those situations because it’s when people are at their lowest that they need us, and we need to be ready.
How long had you wanted to join the police?
This was the only thing I ever wanted to do, and I tailored most of what I did before it towards this job with things like doing an undergraduate in Criminology at university.
What qualifications do you need to be a Police Constable?
None are actually necessary, it’s more about what experience you can bring, but I would advise that people get qualifications in maths and English, especially English because you need to be able to communicate well.
[Getting qualifications] helps to learn focus as well, and that’s another thing you’ll need a lot of.
What other skills are useful to your work?
Communication is the main one; you need to be able to get on with people at lots of different levels.
Also, teamwork, solving problems and having a respect for diversity; it’s quite a full package deal where you always have lots of different issues coming up.
What path did you take from leaving school to getting where you are today?
After I left school I did A-Levels, then spent four years at university doing both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
It wasn’t needed, but I wanted to do it and it definitely helps.
Why would you recommend this work to others?
It’s a fantastic job with lots of opportunities.
There are obvious reasons, such as stability and economic purposes, but there’s also that thing about getting to help people and make a difference.
Roughly what sort of salary could someone looking to be a police constable expect to earn?
I think it’s around £21,500 to start with, but it goes up each year.
What sort of person do you think would suit a career in the police?
I think people who enjoy diversity might like this as a career. It’s difficult at first but you soon get used to it, so you’d have to be ready for a challenge.
The thing with this is that it’s not a regular nine-to-five job; it needs a lot of effort and commitment and it really is life changing. If you don’t like that then this probably isn’t for you.
The good thing is that people join the police from all sorts of different backgrounds.
What advice would you give to young people thinking about a career in the police?
Make yourself the most employable person possible. Think about what life experiences you’ve had that would be useful, and ask yourself whether you think you have enough.
Get an education, do voluntary work, anything you can to get that experience.
Have a back-up plan too. There are always more people wanting to join the police than there are vacancies. Don’t give up if you don’t get a job straight away, but having something to fall back on will be a great help.