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Should I join Police cadets

Can anyone give me on advice on whether it is worth joining the police cadets? As I was watching videos and I am now 17 and really want to become a police officer but it looked so embarrassing the things they were doing in the videos like playing stupid games etc also they all looked about 13 years old😂 anyone had experience and could tell me if it’s worth my time joining them at this age?
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Original post by Josh1965
Can anyone give me on advice on whether it is worth joining the police cadets? As I was watching videos and I am now 17 and really want to become a police officer but it looked so embarrassing the things they were doing in the videos like playing stupid games etc also they all looked about 13 years old😂 anyone had experience and could tell me if it’s worth my time joining them at this age?


I'm not sure its worth joining now because as you say most people I know in police cadets are about 13-15 years old. I do believe there is a programme I think Special Constables or something you can join when you're 18, and you could always try volunteering or getting work experience at your local police station. I'm not saying don't join cadets because you're older though; look at a few branches and see if any would be a good fit.
depends when you're turning 18. if it's in the next couple of months i wouldn't bother and instead look at becoming a special. they've got the same powers as regular police officers, but are volunteers and have to do a minimum of 16 hours a month.
don't write off the cadets completely, though. i've been a cadet since the beginning of the year and just turned 16 and there are now so many more opportunities compared to when i was 15. for example, yesterday i got to go on foot patrol with a special all morning and then was with traffic for the afternoon. one of my officers is also working on organising a ride along for me. basically, what i'm trying to say is that since you're 17 there are loads more opportunities with the VPC for you so if it's still a while until you turn 18 i'd definitely join. really gives you a flavour of what policing is about and you'll get inputs from different units (in the last few months we've had the dog handlers, firearms, traffic, cid, helicopters and more) on a regular basis. although it's not a fast track into the police, it can help you decide whether it's for you and help you make decisions on what you'd potentially like to specialise on in the future.
as for silly games, we've never played any in our unit.
also, once you're 18 you can become a cadet leader. my unit is quite new so at the moment we don't have any cadet leaders that used to be cadets, but there are some people turning 18 soon so i'm guessing they'll become leaders. so yeah if you do end up joining then you won't have to quit once you're 18 and instead you can enjoy some extra responsibilities!
anyway if you couldn't already tell, i'm a police cadet so shoot me a message if you want and i'll try my best to answer any questions you have :smile:

by the way, a little bit on age range. in my unit we have everyone from 13-17 and i'd say just less than half are over 16 but there are a lot of yr11s that are still 15. i think there's one or two 13 year olds and there used to be a couple more but they quit. the 14 year olds tend to keep to themselves but everyone is super friendly so we all mix.
(edited 6 years ago)

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