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Police Graduate Recruitment (debate)

There seem to be a fair number of threads about recruitment and a number of people joining so:

Nick Adderley, the rather forthright Chief Constable of Northants wrote the following article for Police Oracle:

https://www.policeoracle.com/news/HR_personnel_and_staff_development/2021/May/12/college-degree-recruits-unprepared-for-reality-of-policing--says-chief_107212.html

I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts / positions are on this - given that many of you may be asked to defend your position on it given that many people may be in this exact position.

Reply 1

Trinculo

It's an article that anyone in the recruitment process should read - but in short, the CC is saying that the profile of new officers joining is getting younger and younger and with less and less life experience - and this is leading to recruitment and training issues, as well as less and less experience in the supervisory ranks. He states that he believes this is as a result of the requirement for constables to be graduates (by whatever recruitment path) and that it is a mistake.

Reply 2

Trinculo

My personal feeling is that he's probably right. It isn't clear to me why policing needs to be a graduate profession. I don't see what is being gained, but it is clear what is being lost. I think that graduates should be neither encouraged nor discouraged from joining and the recruitment process should be open to all without quotas. I see nothing which leads me to believe that policing requires nor deserves a degree.

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(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 3

danyval

I think since the detective role is more specialised and a big part of it is office-based, recruits are able to ease into the expectations of the role gradually. Also, a degree can be very useful, especially in a relevant area such as criminology or forensics.

Secondly, although I do think resilience is critical for PCs and DCs, there are numerous flaws with "testing for it":
1. Its impossible to test for resilience during the application process
2. If you did, it would be largely unscientific, since a "resilience threshold" would be arbitrary
3. It would be inherently biased against young people

Resilience depends on the individual, not the age group they belong to. Many adults will not have faced the hardships that some young people have had to go through, and vice versa. Ultimately, I think ethics is the most important factor policing applicants should uphold; including altruism and the commitment to helping others. Resilience can be developed relatively quickly, so it shouldn't be a criterion.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 4

Trinculo

Original post by danyval

Interesting thought.

I'm not sure it's true that recruits can ease into the role of a DC gradually though. Would you not think it's the other way around? That a PC can spend some weeks doing stop and search or patrolling, or picking up crimes that she doesn't really deal with beyond the arrest - whereas a DC is expected to pick up those crimes and interview suspects for incidents that he was never actually there to see? A new PC might be managing 1 or 2 cases. A new DC a dozen or more.

I'd wonder how relevant a degree is. A degree in law might help a little bit, but it's not clear to me how a degree in criminology really helps. At the point at which a PC or DC becomes involved, the social reasons behind why burglary occurs aren't really the issue - surely the issue is "who did this, and where can we find them?".

Secondly, although I do think resilience is critical for PCs and DCs, there are numerous flaws with "testing for it":
1. Its impossible to test for resilience during the application process
2. If you did, it would be largely unscientific, since a "resilience threshold" would be arbitrary
3. It would be inherently biased against young people

Resilience depends on the individual, not the age group they belong to. Many adults will not have faced the hardships that some young people have had to go through, and vice versa. Ultimately, I think ethics is the most important factor policing applicants should uphold; including altruism and the commitment to helping others. Resilience can be developed relatively quickly, so it shouldn't be a criterion.

That's a fair point - although I would ask what hardships you think young people will have faced that adults will not have - given that all adults were younger at some point, and the differences we are talking about in terms of recruiting are not decades - we're talking about 5-10 years. I struggle to think what challenges today's 21 year old has faced that today's 27 year old has not.

I think from Adderley's point of view, he is looking at recruiting on a one-way continuum. Candidate A is less desirable now than she will be in 5 years time, so why not recruit her in 5 years time?

Reply 5

Student19737

@Trinculo how do you find the job on a daily basis? I know it varies a lot but has the training prepared you sufficiently for being on Borough? I know that the direct DC route has attracted some criticism but have you faced any in the job?

I’ve seen you comment previously on the never ending reports for the CPS etc so is the job do-able for someone new and do you feel constantly stretched and unable to perform at the best of your abilities due to a high work load? I think the biggest fear for most joining is the unknown of whether or not we will be good at the job. Did you also find the NIE easy to pass whilst working full time?

In terms of progression would you ever personally consider going through the Sergeants exams and going through the promotion board early on in your career or is it better to apply for specialist units and build a solid income with the OT available which is obv high on a higher pay scale point.

You’re our only hope of getting any information so we always appreciate your insights. Many thanks!

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 6

Generic Table

I think young people are constantly underestimated

Reply 7

Trinculo

Original post by Generic Table

I think young people are constantly underestimated

I think the question is - what can a younger person do that a slightly older person can't - and would the slightly older person not have some measure of experience to contribute? This is essentially asking if it is a mistake to be concentrating recruitment at a particular group who are by and large very similar in attributues.

Reply 8

Generic Table

There's no age limit (besides mandatory retirement), for any of these routes. The chief is concerned about lack of experience and resilience among younger recruits, but I think that you can always develop experience and resilience on the job and age doesn't necessitate that you have more life experience. I think that if you join younger you can be better moulded for the job and surely it's the total amount of time you spent as an officer that is more important than the total amount of time you spent being alive, when it comes to predicting how well you will do at your job.

Everyone starts off in life without experience, but what should be important is that new recruits are given a fair chance to improve and become the best that they could be.