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Evening all, Just wondering if anyone has any direct experience of working for NPAS specifically as a tactical flight officer, I'm trying to view or understand the medical standards required? I figured I'd ask here before going to my own HR team to ask. Thanks in advance.

Week 4 was certainly an interesting one. It saw my first arrest for drink driving, once again looking for a missing person who was allowed to walk out of where she was being cared and also saw me attend a nasty domestic between a mother and son. I am now confident is how to deal with missing people and compact, I feel confident in dealing with drink drivers but I am still a little unsure on domestics. I have been to a few now but there is something about them that I just cannot seem to grasp. Perhaps it is the pure desperation that these people are experiencing and I am the only person that they can turn to to sort out their lives when they are at rock bottom. Hopefully I will be able to get the hang of them and deliver the service that those victims expect of me. The excitement and thrill of being a police officer was not wearing thin as it is a job like no other however I was becoming mentally and physically exhausted and the demand on the body and brain was one I had never imagined. Despite this it is such an exciting job that you just forget about how drained you are and get on with it, leaving work knowing that you might have made a difference to someone’s life is enough for me. You most certainly get dunked in the deep end on your 10 weeks but the excitement of it all leaves me itching for the next shift.

Week 1 of being an operational police officer certainly saw me out of my depth and struggling to come to terms with the position I was now in, however, it was also the most exhilarating and interesting week. It was an uphill battle from the very beginning, trying to remember the training we had been given but also trying to bring the human being element into it as well. Week 1 involved my first arrest, a warrant on a shipping container, first domestic, a hate crime, a sudden death and a high risk missing person enquiry. My first arrest was a terrifying experience however it was something that will stay with me forever. I feel that it went well and I was able to remember all my training and the correct processes whilst dealing with the arrested male. When I was called to attend a sudden death I was terrified about how I was going to deal with it as I had never seen someone dead before. Looking back on it I will admit that I was verging on being in shock when we arrived and although the family dealt with it well I did not really know what to say to them. It was a massive learning curve and feel ready to lead on the next. The main struggle for me this week has been getting to grips with the computer systems. Having had our training on this before Christmas and completely forgetting how to use it, it has been extremely difficult and almost embarrassing having to keep asking people how to work it. I do feel a little more comfortable on it however still have a long way to go to figuring it all out. It is a massive emotional and physical drain dealing with so many different people day in day out, most of whom are at rock bottom, however what I have certainly learnt from this week is that the main skill in becoming a good police officer is your ability to talk and engage with people.

Week 3 saw me grow in confidence at jobs and experience my first bit of confrontation although not physical just a heated exchange of words. I have never really been a very confrontational person and coming into the job I was a little worried about how I would react in those situations however I felt that I managed the situation well and with a little help from Alan all was resolved and the suspect taken to custody. This week saw me experience Berrywood for the very first time and I am sure it will not be the last. The woman we were looking for just walked straight out of the hospital even though she was sectioned, I cannot understand how this was allowed to happen however that is not for me to worry about it is for me to find them, make sure they are safe and well and return them to the hospital. Week 3 saw my first foot chase although running 50 meters after a very drunk 14 year old who had sprung out of the police car, I am not sure it really counts. Dealing with her was a challenging job. There was absolutely no reasoning with her which was tough and trying to make her see sense was just falling on deaf ears. Eventually Alan and I left her with her mother and advised that if she had any more problems to call us. I visited my first prison which was an exciting job and one that I will certainly not forget. What I have realised this week is that being a police officer entails so much more than fighting and solving crime; I feel like I am a counsellor, a metal health nurse, an ear for those who have no one else among other things but the thing that I am enjoying most about this job is how varied it is from day to day. I've been worried about the massive pressure to get everything right but I've had so much advice and support from everyone in my team already that even after 3 weeks I feel part of the furniture.

This week saw me work my first ever night shifts, something that I was certainly not looking forward to when I became operational and was not sure how I would cope with them. It is safe to say that although they are a shock to the system it is the early shifts that are the worst! I was still at the stage where I was more comfortable watching and learning from Alan as this is how I have always best learnt however towards the end of the week I was a lot more confident on being the first one into the incident. Two weeks in and already two sudden deaths down. I knew that this was part of the job but certainly didn’t think they would come around like this! Having taken the lead on my second I now feel confident in what to do at sudden deaths. This week also saw my first domestic assault which proved very difficult to handle as not only was it at 0600 and I was extremely tired but also the IP being hysterical I found it hard to cope. Nonetheless I coped well and onto the next. I nicked my second drug driver which was very satisfying and again confident in the drug drive procedure. All round a pretty good week and looking forward to the next.

Looking at the number concerns raised around the quality/quantity of PST I start to wonder what is actually being delivered by different forces. Within the cathedral constabularies we receive two full days annually of PST, which generally covers unarmed techniques, rigid handcuffs and tactical baton training. Although these are repeated on every occasion they occasionally include cell/vehicle extraction (not that we have any), leg restraints etc. We do not have PAVA so don't cover this. We also have a written knowledge check test which must be passed along with competency assessment. We receive separate first aid training so this does not form part of PST. From some Home Office force colleagues I have spoken to it appears some officers only get one day annual refresher and in one force this includes first aid. Now the quality of instruction we receive is excellent, however, I think two days annually is insufficient, never mind one. I just wondered what the picture was nationally, and if officers are receiving only one day training annually isn't it any wonder injuries to officers are sky high. I know some posters are PST instructors so I would particularly welcome hearing from them.

Hello, I am from HM Customs Gibraltar. Can any Border Force Officers provide any information as to what the Border Force induction course content and training is? Regards, J

Hi Guys Im currently in the application process but if I make it through does anyone have any tips on what " Extra Gear " to take with you to training e.g. Laptop etc?

Hi all, I was having a conversation earlier this evening whilst at dinner with friends about new policing students and advice that they were given either by their tutors, colleagues or just in passing. We all took it in turns and mentioned something and when it came round to me I replied with the trusted 'what you put in is what you will get out'. This got me to thinking though whether any of you guys had been given advice that has helped you in the past and whether you'd be happy to share it here on the forum as it just may help another user if they are going through their training whatever the role may be. Other things that my friends mentioned: Don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't know something Have confidence and don't be afraid to get stuck in Don't allow your emotions to get in the way of your role Be willing to listen and learn

Hi all, I'm currently going through my police officer application and have reached my medical stage and I'm just awaiting a date to go speak with the force medical team. My question regards pre-reading prior to starting training school have any of you done this and if so did you find it beneficial? I've been considering getting a copy of the latest Blackstones Policing Manual to have a read through so I can better equip myself for when I do finally start training. My current role which is also within the police allows me to have knowledge of law and crime but not to the scale of a police officer? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Hello guys, About to start my PC training next month and just wondering what ideas people have for a patrol bag? Not too expensive, one to have that is durable but good value for money. I will be intending to use it during training to fit all my books, lunch etc generally day to day stuff, and then using it once training has finished and onto the real thing! Any suggestions, or previous experience with any would be great.

I have been meaning to write this blog for a while and as I sit here studying for my definitions check this Friday, I can think of no better time than to avoid said study and put into words my experiences over the past five weeks! I'm hoping this will give prospective recruits a little bit of insight into the IPLDP format and I intend on writing a series of blogs as my time on the course progresses. So here goes... In my force, an IPLDP course consists of 18 recruits, no more, no less and not limited to any particular background. On my course we are a fairly good mix of ex-PCSOs, ex-Special Constables as well as four recruits with no policing background at all (I myself previously serving as an SC for the same force). As the weeks on the course go by you soon notice that all of that past experience is largely irrelevant and actually counterintuitive on occasion - you really are unlearning all that you've learnt and are starting back at square-1! This gives those from outside of the service somewhat of an advantage in my opinion and you may well find that the trainers and bosses agree with that train of thought! Much, much more is expected of you as a PC and this is reflected in the training. Not to put anyone off, of course, I'm having a great time thus far and am thankful to be where I am! Anyway, I shall take you through my weeks thus far just to give you an idea of what to expect! WEEK 1 For all intents and purposes, week 1 was very much an introduction to the Police Service and my force in general. We received input from all the relevant bosses, a talk from the Police Federation (who had us signed up to a million different things by the time they'd left!) as well as various other guest speakers with introductions to different aspects of the Police Service. We started this week in civilian clothes as at this point we were not sworn in constables! The heat that week was unbearable also, so office wear was not the most comfortable (mind you, neither is the uniform itself!). Day 2 in the first week we had our induction exam. This exam tested our knowledge on topics detailed in our induction folders that were given to us at the welcome evening two weeks prior to our start date. All of the recruits were nervous for this exam, perhaps a bit too nervous than we should have been, but everyone pulled through and passed! The following day we had our fitness assessment. This is not designed to be a pass / fail assessment as we had already had this prior to starting training (national standard of 5.4 on the bleep test), but rather to gauge our level of fitness. The assessment consisted of the bleep test to destruction followed by a spin on the Fitech bike, which determines the level you should be hitting on the bleep test. This, unfortunately, is where we sustained our first casualty on the course. A recruit with lasting injuries from a recent car accident was unable to participate in the fitness due to pain in their neck. With this being quite high-risk and with rest / physio being the only remedy, it was decided by the trainers and occupational health that the recruit would be leaving our intake and held back for another. This was obviously quite emotionally distressing for the recruit as they, like all of us, had worked very hard and jumped through hoops to get to where they were - it was sad to see them leave. The recruit was gone by the following day and another prospective recruit lined up to take their place in the next week. I can't overemphasise how precious places on these courses are... My particular force accepts only the best candidates to fill vacancies for PCs and there is always somebody ready to take your place if, for whatever reason, you can't continue... On the Thursday of week 1 and with all introduction and assessments out of the way, it was time to get attested! Despite me having done this before as an SC, this time was different - more special and poignant. The entire morning was more-or-less spent learning our attestation inside and out... In our force, we read the attestation in both Welsh and English and have to say it in unison. For anyone who has read the Police attestation before, you will know that it isn't exactly written in the plainest of English - the same applies to the Welsh! It took us a while for us all to get our pronunciations right and our pauses nailed down, but we had it polished by lunch time! We then donned our No.1 uniforms; tunics, dress shirts/trousers, helmets/hats and boots (bulled to perfection) and made our way to the local Magistrates Court. There were a few hiccups along the way, a particular constable forgetting his helmet and another falling victim to a heavy dollop of seagull poo, but the less said about that the better! Upon our arrival at the course we were promptly informed that Magistrates were not available to attest us today... However, a District Judge was present (sitting in on a case previously) who was happy to swear us in - a rare treat! After a rather sweaty and uncomfortable wait in the lobby of the court, we were directed into the main courtroom and read our attestation in front of the judge - all went well and the attestation sounded great! He did fall off his chair at one point, but we remained composed... We were now Police Constables - sworn in and eager to crack on... From now on we would be turning up to class in our freshly pressed uniforms and expertly bulled boots (still getting the hang of that...). To top the week off we had a talk from the Chief Constable - this was a great opportunity for us to ask questions re the future of our careers in the service and for him to share his ideas for the future. WEEK 2 Onto the next week... Again, a bit more introduction. We were introduced to the force IT systems - yawn-fest, though it has to be done I suppose... Many of us had seen this all before in our previous roles, but a refresher is always useful. The class were also issued with the Pocket Notebooks (PNBs) and we were given a run-through of how and what to record in them. We went through various PNB exercises, writing mock entries to get a feel for how we might best use our PNBs in the future. A lot of forces these days don't issue PNBs to their officers and some may look at them as a somewhat outdated form of note-taking, however, our force still recognises a use and importance in their existence and I am inclined to agree! The next day we had an input from the Professional Standards Department (PSD). PSD are responsible for ensuring the integrity of the force and the maintaining of the image of the Police Service in general, as well as routing out any corruption within the body of staff! This input was presumably meant to put the fear into us, however, we all found it very informative and interesting. We are all now very aware of what you should and shouldn't be doing and how an abuse of your position can easily land you without a job! It is mostly common sense, but it doesn't hurt to hammer it home. A lot of input on diversity this week - a big topic for the police. In the ever-changing and diverse society that is the British population, it is more important than ever for the Police service in the UK to recognise how we can better represent the people we serve. During these sessions we had guest speakers from various backgrounds relating to disability, sexual orientation/gender, religion, etc. all of whom provided very interesting and thought-provoking talks - we were also given the opportunity to ask questions and to determine how we might better serve these different communities as Police officers in the future. In terms of fitness input, we also had another assessment this week in the form of a timed mile. This time was recorded and added to our force records for future reference as we are expected to improve on this time in subsequent assessments. WEEK 3 By this time the class had started to come together a bit more with friendships beginning to form. When you spend the best part of 40 hours a week in close proximity to the same people, you find that relationships begin to form between you and your colleagues, perhaps more so than in other working environments. Everybody is there for the same reason and we are all in the same boat! This week also saw the workload up tremendously compared to the previous two weeks. We were now getting stuck into our legislation and were given our crime books and definitions lists... Over the next few weeks we would be expected to become familiar with these materials as it would form the basis for our crime exam at the end of Week 10 - daunting stuff! Week 3 was a real mixed bag - we covered the National Decision Model (NDM) in-depth, as this really forms a basis for modern policing. Nothing more to say about that... Being a Welsh force we also had a Welsh-input session - it is expected of all officers to reach a certain level of proficiency during the 24-week course so as to be operationally competent in the language. Some find this easier than others. We also had one-to-one sessions regarding our fitness from the weeks previously. Our Fitech bike results from Week 1 would tell us where we should be at on the bleep test and our timed mile times were also scrutinised. Both of these we would be expected to improve on throughout the duration of the course. Throughout the rest of the week, we spent our days learning our Police cautions and receiving inputs on forming reasonable suspicion and belief - the grounds on which policing is founded! This all culminated in a roleplay towards the end of the week in which we were to exercise our new found knowledge / powers in tackling a rather unrealistic scenario of littering in a public place! I'm sure that may be the last time I ever encounter such a situation, but who knows... We were all graded on our performances during the roleplays and given feedback on where to improve. It was our first roleplay of many and, of course, mistakes were made by all - the course is one big learning curve from beginning to end! Following the role plays we were given an input on statement writing. We would be expected to write a detailed statement regarding the roleplays from the day before. The statements were written as per the input we were given following on from the roleplays. They were then collected in and marked by the trainers - we would be given feedback on these at a later date. WEEK 4 This has, so far, been the most challenging week for the class - we were K.O.'d by the end of it! The workload ramped up once again as we found ourselves knee-deep in new legislation and with definitions to learn. Powers of Arrest & Further Detention and arrest necessities were the main agenda for this week - it would tie into everything we did. We were once again faced with another roleplay task, this time tackling a situation involving suspicion of theft. This one went terribly for me and has, so far, been my worst day on the course. Everything just went wrong - my mind went blank, I lost my legislation, my necessity for arrest - it all went tits up! I came out with the feedback and all I can do now is learn from my mistakes. The rest of the class experienced similar hiccups and we were all given a bit of a row at the end of the day - we needed to improve because things weren't going to get any easier... I said this week was a tough one and with the roleplays out of the way we still weren't out of the woods! At the end of the week we had our definitions check... That definition book we were given the week previously, we had a lot in there that we needed to have memorised because we were about to be tested on it! The definitions checks in our force take form as a "fill in the blanks" kind of task... The definitions will have been written out, but with critical words removed from the extract. It is important that the correct words are entered into the blank spaces as any slight deviation could entirely change the meaning of the definition and thus nullify the legislation. Thankfully everyone had prepared and we came out feeling confident... Success! We all did well and the week finished on a high. WEEK 5 And that's it up to now! I wanted to keep this somewhat brief, but that really hasn't happened... I've left out bits here and there, but that is largely the process up to now... The pleasantries are well and truly over with by week 5 and a noticeable pattern in the way the course is delivered is starting to become apparent. New legislation is thrown at us every week along with routine knowledge checks. Our fitness is tested weekly - we're pushed hard. Our uniform is scrutinised... It is all quite alien at first, but this is our daily routine now. These next few weeks will see even more challenges as we start to get stuck into the physical side of things with Personal Safety Training in Week 7 - three weeks after that and we will be almost half-way through. That still seems a long way off, but I'm sure before I know it we will be there. It will be on to the traffic legislation then (a further 10 weeks dedicated to that!), but I shall try not to get ahead of myself. I hope whoever reads this finds it interesting. I shall endevour to put together another one of these blogs as the weeks go by - I'm sure I'll have plenty interesting to tell you!

Next year I'm considering making a request for a standard driving course, which whilst not unprecedented, it is unusual for specials in my force. To do this I'm told I need to make a business case, which is what I'm preparing. Does anyone have experience of making such a business case before please, such that they can share the points that they believe were most persuasive? I'd also be interested to know approximately how much the 3 week standard (excluding initial pursuit) course costs if anyone knows. Suggestions on points consider when making the case also appreciated. FYI I'm a 'career special' with 6 years service based in a combined neighborhood and response team in a rural force with some fast roads on the patch. I'm already basic + compliant stop + carrier authorised. Thanks in advance.

Hello! So for those who don't know, I'm a student officer with West Midlands. The people up high had decided that it was about time for our first taste of real policing so they booked us an attachment day with real officers doing real things. For my own entertainment as much as yours, I thought I'd make a little post about my first experiences. Date: 19/11/2015 TOD: 0830-1630 Attachment to Neighbourhood Team I arrive at the big city station and immediately find there are about 10 parking spaces to share between about 200 people. Therefore I spend the next 40 minutes panicked and trying to find a space in an area I am totally unfamiliar with whilst manoeuvring the car around alleyways I would pretty much struggle to walk through, never mind drive. There are three others from my class joining me on this attachment and between us we take a lucky pick of which door is the right entrance. We got it wrong. Eventually, however, we find some CS spray and someone arrives to pick us up. We drive down to the local neighbourhood team's station, which was literally nothing more than a glorified portacabin. Introductions around all the team and they seem a really good bunch who know what they're doing and love doing it. I was amazed to see the various nominals posted around the room who were all so young! We are then briefed for the day. The plan was we would join a speed operation. Good timing, as just the week before we'd had a quick go with the speed laser in traffic training. PC Rain was on duty, but we decided to give it a go anyway. Half an hour later, after the full briefing, set up and the monumental task of hunting for the right paperwork, we sit in the van ready to roll out the gate when there's a change of plan. Sergeant gets a call on his radio and we are reassigned. One of my colleagues goes on the speed op as planned, but with reduced numbers. The other two of my colleagues are going to help with executing a search warrant on a complicated alleged historical sex abuse case. Me and the guy looking after me were chosen to start work on a high risk missing person. We go into the office to start our initial research of this missing person. After ten minutes of searching various systems and making loads of useful notes, we're told that actually we'd been given the wrong name. So we do it all again, this time for the correct missing person. I'd recently been trained in use of the missing person database we have, whereas my tutor hadn't, so I ended up teaching him a lot about that. Turns out our misper has a list of medical conditions as long as my arm. Armed with as much information as we could muster in the office, we set off. First call is to check his home address. No reply from the door and so given his medical complications, we’re given authority to force entry Section 17 in order to see if he is inside. It was a small house, only three rooms and all of them pretty messy. He wasn’t in, but all of his medications were. Not good news. Desperate to gain a lead, we start house to house enquiries nearby. I take one side of the road and my colleague takes the other. On the very first door I knock at, a lovely old lady answers the door and she makes no reaction or reply to what I’m saying to her. This gives me a bit of a funny feeling that something doesn’t seem quite right, and just then she drops to the floor like a bag of bricks. I’m slightly impressed I had the reaction quick enough to catch her just before she hits the floor and so my colleague joins me and we get her inside. We ask for an ambulance despite her protests. Long story short, this poor woman was feeling weak and frail and was on various medications which did not seem to have worked. We were also concerned that she was showing some initial signs of confusion onset, which the medics agreed with, so we did all the necessary bits and bobs for a referral to social services. Luckily she had an angel of a neighbour who could support her once she came back out of hospital. Typical, I thought - first day out, first house I come to and something as unexpected as this happens. What an introduction to policing! Having got the lady wheeled off in the much more capable hands of the lovely paramedics, and then getting myself back to task, we continue house to house enquiries. Eventually a few people mention the same name and in the absence of many other leads, we decide to check it out. We hunt for the nearest working PC (which can be quite a battle!) and after running a few intelligence checks we find this name linked through an intelligence log to an address. Excited by this new information, but also full of trepidation at the time elapsed and the medical condition of this person, we rally the troops and eagerly set off to search. I should point out that we were not quite blessed with an exact address, but rather the name of a tower block, which meant a hundred doors or so over six floors to start checking each and every one of them. By some stroke of luck, the first few doors we try have apparently seen our person hanging around the staircases. One person reckon they know which flat precisely and they give us a number. The seven of us traipse up six flights of stairs and I find myself realising for the first time that with all this police kit on, it’s easily an extra couple of stone to my weight, and this would take some getting used to! Of course, the flat in question is right on the top floor and the lifts are out of order so I’m ready for a short nap once we stumble up to the top floor. I was a little horrified to see the edges of the walkways, on which only a thin piece of wood around four feet high stood between us and a six storey drop. Envisioning some elaborate horrible scenario of an angry lunatic bursting out of a random flat and flinging us easily over the barrier, I was practically hugging the wall and sidestepping down to find the right door. Eventually we get there and there’s a sense of nervous excitement in the air as we knock. We make repeated verbal appeals but to no success. Just as I’m about to resign myself, someone inside calls out. “Who is it?” “It’s the police, come to the door please. We’re worried about you, we’d like to speak to you.” Again, a few moments of nervous silence, ended by the relieving sound of the door being unlocked from within. Our missing person opens the door and whilst being as discreet as possible, we all share sly celebrations with each other under our breath and a subtle pat on the back. With a little more talking, our missing person agrees to come down and be assessed by ambulance due to his various medical ailments and missed doctor’s appointments. (When the ambulance arrives it’s the same crew as earlier and they make cheeky comments about me being the bad luck charm!). A colleague of mine takes the chap to one side as we wait for the ambulance and carries out a full missing person debriefing session, which is vitally important to help us understand more about why this person went missing and how we can help them and others in the future. The guy then goes along to hospital after precautionary advice from the paramedics. I glance at my watch and I’m disappointed to see it’s already time for my shift to end. We are driven back to our central station from where we make our own home. I spent the rest of the night buzzing. I accept that, especially to many of you more experienced officers, my day’s activities were not too exciting or ground-breaking and may even be seen by some as mundane and testing, but I really enjoyed it. The true cliché feeling of knowing you’ve helped someone, potentially saved lives today, and the first true feeling of how people deal with you in uniform – these are all emotions I think I could get used to. Bring on day two.

Afternoon all, A question about the possibility of switching forces. I'm in sixth form college and doing A levels atm but I'd like to join the specials force at the end of March after turning 18 but my question is, I'm planning on going to uni, so how easy is it to switch forces after about 5/6 months (bear in mind much of it will be training and processing the application, that's if I even get in) to whichever force is in the area that my uni is (probably either Manchester or possibly Oxford/somewhere in Scotland). Or is there a way to train in the area I'm at at the moment and then start working as a Special wherever I ended up at uni (how long does training take??) ?? Also I'm confident that I'll have the time at uni as I don't drink (I'm on medication that means I can't) and I thoroughly dislike nights out. I know I'm only gonna be 18 and still a student but I'm fit and healthy (I've run half marathons, cycled 200km, etc.) and feel pretty up to it so yep! Thanks a bunch! Becca-El

On Friday 26th June 2017, less than a week ago, I passed out as a PC. Since my last update, training has been a mixture a three week response driving course, final knowledge checks and consolidation days, parade practice and our pass out parade. Our standard response driving course was incredible and by far one of the best parts of the 26 week training course. We traveled up and down the force every day at crazy speeds and I loved every second of it, blue lights especially! The final driving test was so nerve-wracking, so much more scary than my actual driving test, and passing with only three minors left me absolutely over the moon and so ready to jump in a job car for real. Since finishing the driving course, we've been back in HQ for some frantic, last-minute lessons that we've missed throughout the six months and preparation for our Pass Out parade which would soon be coming up. And it did soon come! With our final week having finally arrived, I think a weird sense of bitter-sweet came over all of us, including our trainers. The day we'd all been waiting and wishing for since the day we got our acceptances, and now that it was finally here, we were sad for training to be coming to an end. The bond that we made as a group was something I never thought would happen in such a short time. The friends I have made on the training course are ones I know I will be mates with for life, a reminder of where we all started and a friendly face to turn to in times of need. The day of our Pass Out soon came around and with bulled boots and pressed uniform, we all lined up ready to march in in front of all of our family and friends for a final farewell. I've never felt more proud of myself, and those around me, in my whole life. I cannot believe the amount I have learnt in the past six months and even more so cannot believe that it's over. Our trainer calls us to attention and we all individually get called up to receive our certificates and shake the chiefs hand. Then come the awards, the Highest Achiever going to the officer who is coming to my station with me, who deserved such an award so much for all his hard work, the Most Improved award for one of the single mums on the course who has improved in confidence every single day since day one, and the Chief Constables Award for Outstanding Achievement, which was awarded to one of the best friends I've ever made in my whole life, a girl who deserved it more than anyone else in the world and who was born to be PC. I am so proud of all of us for making it this far and every single one of the people I trained with will make excellent officers! I think the realisation has hit me now that this is it, it's finally time to get out there for real. I've never been so nervous but excited in my life! I've also never cried as much as I did on our last day, realising that most of us will be working opposite ends of a very large force and some of us may never cross paths again. But I'm so ready for the start of the real training, my tutorship out on division, which will last 15 weeks, and the rest of my career in such an amazing job. Yesterday, I met John Sutherland, author of 'Blue: A Memoir, Keeping the Peace and Falling to Pieces', a man who has quickly become an inspiration to me and who's book I highly recommend to everyone, whether in the job or not. Bring on Sunday and my first ever shift as a PC!! Thank you for reading x

As requested by @XA84! It's been a while since I last posted an update so I suppose it's about time. Since I last posted, it's been a mixture of really super busy weeks and weeks where we spend our days catching up on things that have changed since we were first taught them, things we missed and things we want to recap. It's really starting to feel like we're almost at the end now and it's kind of a bitter-sweet feeling. I can't wait to get out there, finally, after all these months training but I'm also going to miss my training family so much and I'm really worried about how I'll find it out there. We are half way through our six week split currently, where half of us stayed in HQ for our Investigative Interviewing course and the other half went off on the 3 week response driving course. I started with Interviewing, which I'm really glad about because once I'm back from driving there will only be three weeks left before we pass out. However, it has been hard listening to the other half of our group talking about all the fun they've had and places they've been on the driving, which sounds like such an amazing course. We have had our own fun in HQ though, with interview practicals being my favourite part. We covered No Comment interviews, which I found particularly interesting, as well as how to challenge people's accounts etc. I found it really difficult at the start to stop myself from using leading questions or asking 'Can you..' instead of imperatives, but after the first day everything seemed to fall into place and I got the hang of it and found myself excited to do the real thing. In our three weeks in HQ we've also had a massive practical day, where we were set up as if we were covering a town with an event on for the day and sent around to mundane tasks and petty crimes when all of a sudden a major crime happens and we had to deal with it, which was fantastic. We've also had inputs from the Forensic team and Family Liaison Officer which were so interesting. We also had a Court Practical day following our court training which was a great insight into what it'll be like to stand in the witness box. My role play included being questioned on my age and how I could possibly know this and that at the age of twenty, which I'm actually really glad was brought up as I'm sure it will be out there and I felt like I held my ground pretty convincingly and had good feedback afterwards, so happy days! By far one of my favourite things we've done throughout our training so far was our Water Rescue & Safety day which was on Thursday. We traveled up to a local fire station where we were plonked in a freezing cold river in dry suits and taught how to not only rescue casualties from the water but also self-rescue in strong currents. It was an absolutely fantastic day and a brilliant team-building exercise, although it was only half of our team with us. The trainers were brilliant and it was nice to get away from the strictness of HQ and have a bit of a laugh and a joke for the day, it was a right blast. Not to mention the fact that, being a swimmer, this day was right up my street. We followed this perfectly by another team-building exercise, which was our own kind of 'end of course' night out to Cardiff to make the most of our last few weeks together. I'm really going to miss the people I've become so close to, spending the last five months as one big family, and it'll be weird to all be split up but I'm hoping I become just as close to the people on my shift at my station. Come Tuesday I'll be starting the Response Driving course which I'm so, so excited about but also a little bit nervous because I'm a terrible passenger, I don't get sick but I'm the person who will sit there slamming on my imaginary break in the passenger seat. I'm sure it'll be fine though, and from the other group's stories it's the best part of the training. We've had another course start in HQ a few weeks ago which is nice, it's great to have a few new faces around the place and especially in the hotel. Other than that, I'm just pushing myself more in the gym despite a minor knee injury ready to get out there and trying to get my head together and plan for the real world now. 6 weeks to go, and counting! Thanks for reading, Alice.

PC Kelly Ellis is one of an increasing number of UK police officers who are undertaking firearms training. Her friends have dubbed her Lara Croft - after the Tomb Raider action hero - but she says the training is the hardest thing she has ever done. Over three months, Dominic Casciani - reporting for the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme - had unique access to some of the new recruits being assessed in Cheshire. Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39260906

I'm a little over half way through 25 weeks training and sat in my hotel room thinking about what's to come next. We've completed our Traffic legislation, which spanned over 2 weeks, and had a consolidation day full of role plays which was really good fun. We get closer to our Driving Course every week and I can't wait to be out in the cars and away from the classroom for 3 weeks, especially after meeting the driver trainers today on our Road Traffic Collision awareness day. I think I'm more excited about driving than anything else we've done on the course so far, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, doing things practically rather than listening to a power point about them feels so much more real. After today, traffic is definitely something I'm interested in just from the stories we were told and the under-representation of women in the role, and of course getting to drive the faster cars just that little bit faster.. I think a few people on the course are nervous for our driver training, and I'm really nervous to be a passenger to be honest, because that's just how I am, but I'm so excited to get behind the wheel myself. I'm going to be honest and say that the last couple of weeks I've struggled the most since we started training, not in terms of the lessons and legislation etc, but the routine of it. A long drive on a Monday morning to stay in a hotel where often the rooms aren't even big enough to get the ironing board out, and do the week of training with nothing to look forward to when the end of the day arrives because it just means heading back to the hotel. Then Friday comes around and I'm so excited for the moment I step back through the door of my home only to rush around the whole weekend juggling spending time with my family and my boyfriend along with the work we're set and spending the whole of Sunday washing and ironing all my shirts and tunic for our weekly parades as well as making sure I've packed all I need to live away from home for the week. It's all just getting to me a bit. And I think it's difficult for anyone back home to have a true understanding of what it is we've signed up for, training sounds like all fun and games and a breeze but recently I've been thinking well, I've worked so hard to be here, and worked so hard for a job that I know will mean having no clue what will happen from shift to shift, not knowing if one day I'll be walking down a street on patrol and someone decides to take their frustrations with the Police out on me. Not knowing if the first person to bite me in a scuffle is going to have Hepatitis, never knowing what's around the next corner or what someone has in their pocket, or whether an assault on me will be taken seriously or just considered 'part of the job', or who's watching you make a mistake and who will be there to pick up on it as soon as you do, what will be the first mistake you make that lands you in trouble and will you end up like the countless officers I see everyday hung out to dry by the media and criticised for the decisions they made in a situation most people will never have to face in their lives. I'm so excited to get out there and see the real world, and I'm so glad we have a tutor to stand beside us through the first few months, but man I'm nervous about what's waiting out there. I'm sure it's all just the fear now that we're getting closer, and I'm not saying I can't handle it at all, I think I've become a much stronger person just from these few short months of training, but it's definitely a fear of the unknown. Anyway, I think I've been having my 'mid-course' wobble and hopefully when our interviewing and driving course starts I'll feel a little bit more excited to come here every Monday. Thanks for reading, hope you're all well!

I am now officially going in to week 12 of training school after an annual leave week with only 14 weeks left - nearly half way! It's gone ridiculously fast that I can hardly believe we're in double figures already. It's been a fair few weeks since I last posted an update here, and after a bit of prompting I've decided now is probably a good time. We've been doing a lot of legislation over the past few weeks, and had two consolidation role plays days to practice what we'd learnt. These days consist of getting fully kitted up including high vis jackets and roaming around in pairs/threes until you are deployed over the radio to an 'incident', where an assessor and several students from the local college act out a scenario. The hardest part of these, for me, has definitely been the radio stuff. It's a whole other language to me and I've never experienced anything like it before, I still even get a bit stumped over Phonetic Alphabet, the other day I was spelling out 'JONES' and 'October, November' came out of my mouth, much to the amusement of the assessor. Like I said, we've had two of these consolidation days so far and I hated every second of the first one, despite the scenarios themselves not being too much of a disaster, the worry and pressure made me soo nervous. For example, we completely forgot to search a shoplifter who we transported to (fake) custody only for the assessor to pull a massive knife out of his hoodie, schoolboy error!! But to be fair to us, we had only just covered searching so I think we were worried about how much it had been drilled into us that searches can so easily be unlawful. But, the second time around, I enjoyed every single scenario we attended as I really felt that I had grasped how to achieve the best outcome, and I especially enjoyed the ones that involved talking to people rather than going straight in with legislation, but actually really enjoyed the satisfaction of getting them right. We also spent a week visiting the stations we'll be working at and those in the same area as us as well, so for me that was my station and the station that has the custody suite, which are a fair distance apart. Although not the most exciting week ever, it was really great to get to meet some of the people I might be working with and familiarise myself with the station. We spent a day in Court which was also quite interesting, and it was a lot different to when I visited several years ago on work experience with a journalist who I'll never forget being so angry at as he laughed someone crying as his case was heard in court. One officer took us for a tour around the area I'll be covering in a marked car, which to me was really, really cool, having never been in one before. The area that we cover is so huge though, and the stories of a small number of people being on shift at the same time and the amount of time it takes to get from one end of the area to another has made me a bit nervous!! I definitely payed a bit more extra attention in PST after knowing how far away backup could be and how often I'll be single-crewed. Since I last posted, we have started and pretty much finished our Personal Safety Training (PST/OST) which was so much fun from beginning to end. I woke up the morning after each session with plenty of bruises but really enjoyed having practical lessons and being shown how to defend myself. I think for a lot of us on my course it made it all seem quite real, as we joked around pretending to stab each other with plastic knifes, that in just a few months time we'll be out there and may well have to use these techniques from the very start. I've started engaging a lot more in Police news lately, and reading posts by UK Cop Humour on Facebook, and every post that is dedicated towards a fallen officer makes me feel so much different now that I am one of them. I've gained so much respect for the job through the stories from our trainers and understanding the daily struggles that officers face, even just leaving their family for a shift and not knowing what is going to happen in the hours that follow. I think it's really hit me just how dangerous this job can be, but that the work I will be doing will be so personally rewarding that it makes it all worth it (I hope!). Files, files and more files have been thrown at us left right and centre and on Friday we had the whole day to complete a GAP (Guilty Anticipated Plea) file which was hard enough, let alone learning what needs to be included in an NGAP file. To be honest, this has confused me quite a lot, and although I really enjoyed doing the file, it was really just because we had all the information in front of us, and I can't bear to think how hard it'd be to build one of these up completely from scratch! It has, however, made me really excited for our Interviewing course which is just around the corner. We recently went on a training night out to a nearby city which was so much fun, and really bonded us as a team even more than before. It was great to let our hair down for the night and, for me, get dressed up and look like a normal human being again rather than having my hair all scraped back and barely any makeup on. Following this we've had a week off for annual leave, which has been nice, but I'm itching to get back to it tomorrow as we start on Road Traffic stuff for the next two weeks before our Driving course which comes in March. I think the highlight for these past few weeks for me was our individual review that happened at the end of last week where I really began to feel like I was actually headed towards where I'm meant to end up. My trainer said that he loved the way I spoke to people during consolidations and thought that my humour would get me far, which was so encouraging for me as all this time I've been a bit worried that this job might turn me into a robot. The knowledge that I might actually be doing OK has given me so much more motivation and confidence for the remainder of the course and I think it came at just the right time for me. Other than that, my boots still aren't shiny and my tunic still has dodgy creases, but every day that I put on my uniform and walk up to HQ I feel more and more proud of how far I've come and more and more excited for what is to come next. Thanks for reading, sorry this was a long one!

As week four draws to a close I thought I'd give you another update of our training so far. Sorry for the delay between this post and the last, it's been a busy time and to be honest I wasn't sure if anyone was still interested in reading! In my last post I mentioned our Attestation, so I suppose that is a good place to start for this post. It took place on Friday 16th December and we were told we could invite family members and partners to the ceremony and that it would be a great chance for them to get a glimpse into what it was we'd been doing while we were away from home. I decided to invite my mum, stepdad, nan and partner, and none of them had any idea what to expect as nobody in my family has any Police background, so I think it was a bit of a shock to them to be honest. We walked in (yes walked, we hadn't been taught to march yet!) and took our seats in front of the crowd of family and staff as well as those who we would be attesting to, all dressed up in our tunics that we'd spent all morning de-fluffing and waited nervously for our turn to stand up and read out the attestation. For anyone who, like me, didn't have a clue what attesting meant, it's basically swearing your life away. You promise to do your duty and serve the Queen in what seems like the longest and most tongue-twisting speech ever and then are issued with your Warrant Card, certificate and therefore your powers as a Police Officer. Our Sergeant made a really great speech which I think resonated with my mum especially, as she said it made her realise that not only am I now a Police Officer, but that my family is now the family of a Police Officer, and that we are all part of something that has all these rules and expectations that make us much more responsible for the things we do and say than a regular citizen. It was even quite an emotional affair, I know I wasn't the only one who felt a bit overwhelmed by the whole ceremony, in a good way, as it all of a sudden felt very real - we knew what our job was and what we had a duty to do, and that this was now our lives. Plus, the warrant cards are pretty cool. Since the Attestation it's been a whirlwind of legislation, definitions, role plays and knowledge checks. We did our First Aid training and scene management as well as talking through PACE, which I now understand is basically a Police Officer's bible. We've done Evidence and different types of witnesses, covered Diversity and how to take a statement and even written a statement ourselves, which was a pretty funny story. We were in class one morning waiting for the trainers to start, when someone we've had contact with through HR all through the application process walked into the room and shouted at one of our trainers and slapped him across the face, really, really hard. We all sat there in shock thinking oh my god what is going on, and our trainers chased her out the room. They let us sit there staring with our mouths open at the door for a few minutes before all returning to tell us it was just an exercise and that now we were to write up a PNB entry and statement on the assault we had just witnessed! If that's not a hands-on way of getting us to write a pretty decent statement then I'm not sure what is! Just before Christmas we had an input from OST, which is Officer Safety Training and basically all the physical stuff. It was only classroom based so I'm really looking forward to getting into the gym for that side of things. Christmas was a nice break from it all but it felt weird to be back home for such a long amount of time! I've also already noticed changes in my home and personal life, I live in a small town so it's no secret that I've changed my job and now wear a uniform and all over Christmas I was asked hundreds of questions, mostly from family and friends but even from a few people I've only spoken to once or twice in my whole life. I suppose it's exciting but it's also made me a feel a little bit vulnerable, I think it'll be a process to get used to it all, because as one of our trainers said, you become kind of a 'celebrity' in your town, you're doing something that not everyone does, it's exciting and interesting and people want to know in the ins and outs... and if you have a taser, have you ever been tasered, have you tasered anyone yet, have you been sprayed in the eye, can you arrest me, are you going to arrest me... People think you're suddenly a Super Hero, they think you know all the legislation that ever existed and that, despite having only been training for 3 weeks, they think you can solve everything and know the answer to everything! I've come back feeling a bit out of the loop and it took a while on Wednesday morning to get back into 'Police Officer mode' to be honest! Since Christmas it's been pretty strong on definitions, we had a definition check this morning on Theft, Criminal Damage, Going Equipped and Burglary, I think it went alright but I did struggle with Burglary. There's so many 'policey' words that I've never used before in my life that are now going to become part of my everyday vocabulary, it's a strange prospect! It's also been really interesting doing role plays, for example today we did Summons and yesterday we did How to Arrest, so giving reasons and necessity and presenting to a Custody Sergeant. The first couple of times getting up and acting in front of everyone made you feel a little bit stupid, especially as I seem to be getting picked on an awful lot to do it, but I think I've got used to it now, and everyone is so supportive even when you get it a bit wrong which is really encouraging. We've been given our time table for the next couple of weeks and we've got a few more intense ones to know by then, but also two OST lessons next week to look forward to. At the end of January we have a week at our divisional statements for Geographical Awareness, which we think is basically a tour around the station and how things work, it'll be nice to have a week living at home but I don't think we'll be allowed out with the officers, I don't even think we're there in uniform, which I'm disappointed about but I suppose our time will come soon enough! I turn 20 two weeks from today (19th January if you wanted to know when to buy my pressies for) so I'm really looking forward to no longer being the 'teenager' of the group, however I don't doubt that I will always be considered the baby, being so much younger than everyone else! We're looking at Sudden Deaths on my Birthday - how cheerful... Overall it's been a pretty hectic few weeks but I'm glad to be getting properly stuck into it now and already the weeks are flying by before our eyes. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year, here's to an exciting 2017!

All new police officers in England and Wales to have degrees - All new police officers in England and Wales will have to be educated to degree level from next year, the College of Policing has announced. Under significant changes, prospective officers already with a degree can do a funded post-graduate conversion course. Alternatively, they can do an unfunded degree in policing or complete a paid three-year "degree apprenticeship". The Police Federation, representing the rank and file, said it was glad no minimum requirement had been imposed. Currently, recruitment requirements vary from force to force, with some insisting applicants have A-levels or a certificate in policing and others demanding experience in a policing role. The College of Policing, which is responsible for setting standards of ethics and training for the police service, said about a third (38%) of those currently going into policing officers have a degree or post-graduate qualification. 'Very lopsided' But the college's Chief Constable Alex Marshall said the current workforce was not getting the same investment in training and development as people in other professions, such as medicine or the military. "It is very lopsided and we don't do a lot of professional development training," he said. The money for the apprenticeships, due to be introduced next year, is expected to come from a new 0.5% apprenticeship levy on all employers with a wage bill of more than £3m. Under the apprenticeship, new recruits will undertake a three-year course, spending 80% of their time on the frontline, and the rest completing their degree while receiving a salary. A six-month postgraduate conversion course would also be funded by the police. In contrast, the policing degree would be self-funded and the student would need to apply for a police job once qualified. The syllabus is likely to cover the law, safeguarding the vulnerable, understanding how a police officer behaves on the street and how an officer builds trust by interacting well with communities, Chief Constable Marshall said. The College of Policing is in talks with 12 universities about running the courses. Master's degree The announcement follows a two-month public consultation. Of the 3,000 responses received, almost 80% were from police officers who mostly said they were keen to gain accreditation for their existing skills, Mr Marshall said. Other changes to be introduced include: A national set of qualifications for officers following promotion, including a requirement that those applying to be assistant chief constable or above have a master's degree A higher-paid "advanced practitioner" position to try to retain people working in specialist areas, such as cyber crime, and deter them from seeking promotion in a different area Andy Fittes, general secretary of the Police Federation of England and Wales, welcomed the move to accredit qualifications to serving officers, and supported the idea of a framework that might standardise policing courses. He added that the federation was glad to see a move away from requiring minimum education requirements for those joining the service. "There is a balance to be struck around encouraging people to have a certain level of education before joining the force, and marginalising and excluding good quality candidates from all communities by limiting the pool of potential candidates if they are unable to afford it," he said. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38319283 What are the PC faithful thoughts on this?

Monday 5th December - Friday 9th Decemeber Our first week as Student Police Officers is over! I can genuinely say it's been one of the most exciting weeks of my life so far. Despite feeling glad to be home to catch up on some sleep and see my family, I can't wait for Monday to come around again for week two to be honest. The week went so quickly, and there was a lot of information to take in. We went over things like the Code of Conduct and spoke to people from The Federation and had visits from important people. On Monday, we all arrived in business wear and waited around in the reception. Lots of familiar faces from different stages of the application process and everyone seemed really friendly but equally as nervous as I was. We went through formalities for the day and finally got given all of our uniform and kit. This was by far the most exciting part of the process to that date. I got back to the hotel that night and tried everything on, video chatted my family and showed them everything. They were most impressed by the bullet/stab vest. I like the divisional uniform the most (the black fleeces and wicken tops) but our uniform for training is pretty smart too, white shirts with and cravats. It feels really strange to have a real collar number and actually be part of the force now instead of just a hopeful! With all my kit on I really feel like I'm in fancy dress for Halloween! All of the trainers are really nice, and have so many brilliant stories to tell about their time on the beat. They've made sure to check we're all doing okay, especially those of us staying in the hotel for the week, and gave lots of advice on our uniform and how best to iron it. We've all done a lot of ironing this week, from our everyday shirts and trousers to the Number 1's we wore on Friday for parade inspection. Luckily there's a couple from the army on our intake so they helped us out with getting the initial shine to our boots, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it myself. We have our Attestation next Friday, so my mum, step dad , nan and boyfriend are going to come to that and I'm super excited for it! We've also been given the date for our Pass Out, which will be in May. It seems so far away now but the group who are passing out in the next couple of weeks have reassured us that the whole process of training goes so fast, and after this week I really believe them. Each of us in our intake has at least one other person who is going to be based at the same station after training, there's only two of us for the station I'm going to but one other from the previous group too, so it'll be nice to know someone else has just been the newbie at the station before us. We've been issued our radios and mobile devices (the upgraded version of a PNB) and been over how to use them, and have been told we'll be doing first aid next week as well as having our first fitness test, so I'm expecting next week to go just as quickly, especially with the Attestation on Friday. So far we've all really bonded as a group, there's some really funny characters and everyone is so enthusiastic about the job which is great to be surrounded by. I'm the youngest, as I expected, and by at least three years as well! I definitely feel like the baby of the group but so far it hasn't seemed to have made much difference. There's quite a few who have been Special's, in both DPP and other forces, so it's useful to be able to ask them questions, but it's also quite daunting being one of the few who has absolutely no policing background or even family members in the job. I've got a lot to learn! I’ve learnt my cautions, so you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not believe me when I say I learnt this by watching far too much Traffic Cops and the likes! The food is really good, which is dangerous, I can tell that over these 6 or so months there may have to be a few trips to Stores to request bigger trousers! Our group has bonded really well, and I can tell I’ve made some friends that will remain with me for a long time already, which is great to know since we will be spending such a long time together. So all in all, it's been a hectic but amazing week, and I'm so looking forward to what's to come. Thanks for all the positive comments on my last post, I know this one isn't quite as interesting as it only covers a week but I thought I'd update before the work piles on, as I doubt I'll have time to do an update every week. Here's to the next 6 months and what sounds like an incredibly rewarding career ahead! (P.S, Sorry, I'm a serial exclamation mark abuser and an atrocious speller)

Police body says revealing details of training delivered to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar would ' damage relations' , despite torture concerns. Full Story - Middle East Eye

New standards and training for police officers using stop and search are to be rolled out across England and Wales. It will be the first time national standards have been established since the powers were introduced in 1984. Police will take an online course and sit an exam which will test when they should use the powers and challenge any "unconscious bias" they might have. It follows government criticism last year over some police forces' use of the controversial searches. The plans were prompted by research into the powers by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The College of Policing said it now hopes the training and standards will educate police officers to perform the searches so they are "fair, legal, professional and transparent." College spokesman Richard Bennett said: "We wish to see no unjustifiable stops. "We want to say 'this is the training, this is the guidance, this is the standard'... and that may lead to fewer searches being conducted." Mr Bennett said that the course will also address unconscious bias amongst police officers, and how it might affect their judgement on duty. "What we are hoping to do is to ensure that officers become aware of their own unconscious biases and that they counteract those biases so that when they make objective decisions about the exercise of a policing power that those biases do not come into play." File photo of police officers conducting a stop and search Image caption The Home Office said the number of stop and searches in 2014-15 fell 58% compared to 2011 In 2014, the the home secretary Theresa May said: "Nobody wins when stop and search is misapplied. It is a waste of police time. "It is unfair, especially to young black men. It is bad for public confidence in the police." That year all 43 police forces in England and Wales greed to adopt a government code of conduct on the use of their powers to stop and search members of the public. The new online course and recording standards have been piloted in six force areas by some 1,300 officers. Of those officers who took part, 80% said the training was either "good or excellent". But earlier this year some police forces were condemned for failing to implement best practice on stop and search properly. It will not be possible to tell what effect the training has on individual officers attitudes for some time as the programme will be rolled out in different stages across the country. Disproportionate searches According to the Home Office, in the year 2014-15 the total number of stops and searches carried out in England and Wales had fallen by almost two thirds - 58% - since March 2011 after concerns that the powers were being used excessively, especially against ethnic minorities. Despite fewer being made, people who considered themselves from BME groups were about twice as likely to be stopped by police than those who said they were white, and people who considered themselves black are still four times more likely to be stopped and searched. Mr Bennett said: "Because people from BME backgrounds very often live in disadvantaged areas they quite often live in high crime areas, and they are disproportionately both victims of crime. "If policing activity occurs in that area then there is likely to be a degree of disproportionality. "We can have these arguments until the cows come home, but what we need to do is make sure officers have the guidance and training so that every single stop and search they carry out is fully justified in terms of there being appropriate levels of suspicion." 'Back to basics' Inspector Garth Stinson, the College of Policing's lead on stop and search, explained that it is hoped any future arguments about the use of stop and search will be resolved through better recording of reasons for searches, and by police using them as a "power not a tactic". "We're trying to get back to basics - just because you have got information about somebody doesn't mean you should walk with the assumption that you're going to search them," he said. "Members of the public who are stopped should feel they've been treated with dignity and respect." Police officers will start taking the course in the next few weeks and it is hoped that all of the roughly 100,000 constables and sergeants will have completed training by the end of 2017. In Scotland, a consultation on police stop and search powers was launched in March of this year. Stop and search: Police training aims to raise standards https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/37780258?client=ms-android-orange-gb I can't wait just what I need another self teach package on stop search. I wonder if I promise never to exercise my power of stop search again they will let me off?