TALKINGBLUES BLOG

We have had a few emails over the last few weeks from people who have just failed their paper sift on the application form, and want us to have a look at it. We tend to be reluctant to examine forms on that basis for a number of reasons. Firstly, it must be appreciated that forms will fail for three main reasons:

1. It was not good enough (which is fair enough)
2. It was good enough really, but was harshly marked by inconsistent marking (a huge problem for forces)
3. It was easily god enough, but the force wanted minority recruits, so was effectively ignored (the worst case scenario).

From our perspective, forms in category 1 are easy to deal with. We can just correct them as normal. The ones under points two and three however are more difficult. This is because they were never really failures to begin with. Our problem is that clients send us a form, which we look at and say is perfectly acceptable. Who does the candidate believe? Well, we will have given an unbiased opinion, as that is what they re paying us to do, but it does present applicants with a issue. Talking Blues say the form is fine, but the candidate also knows that the police have failed it. It calls for a real leap of faith to resubmit it next year, and there is no guarantee of course that the same thing will not happen.

 This is why we advise anyone in this position to start afresh with a new set of examples, or at least replace the one that they have failed on. Our view is that there is no percentage for you in us checking a form that you know has failed. Submit a fresh set of answers to us, and let us work on a blank canvas, so to speak.

If the form was on the other hand just not good enough, you have to be honest with yourself. Many people say to us that a fellow police officer checked it for them, but unless that person is in recruiting, what is the point? How do they know what should go into the form? Police officers are taught parts of the law, but  if I was selling my house, then I would use a solicitor, not a police officer. They use different knowledge. Being a police officer does not mean they are an automatic expert on the police application process.

I could not help but comment on this story. Last week, it was reported that four GMP officers were on trial for Misconduct in a  public office. This offence was originally meant for dealing with corruption. These four bobbies however appear to have been charged on the basis of an arrest they made. Based on what I have read, they locked up two females for assaulting another pair of females. At custody, somehow at least one of these females has been restrained using an armlock, and this somehow has resulted in the officers being charged with misconduct. It would seem to me significant that they have NOT been charged with assault. At the same time, presumably if they had abused the females verbally, and who knows, perhaps they were a couple of drunken buckesses who deserved the odd comment, then the bobbies would have been done under discipline. This seems to me liek the job trying to  make a point. GMP never used to be so petty about things, in fact it seems it used to be almost obligatory for female staff to sleep with the previous Chief Constable. Perhaps it is the new Chief who is driving this in order to get the high performance from his officers he managed in Cheshire. Hold on though, Chehsire was amongst the worst performing forces in the country when Pete was there. At least GMP is performing well. Well, actually, that is not true any longer. GMP senior management are under special measures it seems due to the rapidly declining performance of the force. And this, my friends, will be why these four have ended up in court. I suspect the Chief feels that to stop this performance slide, senior managers need to use the stick on the troops a lot more. If its not the troops fault, then it would be the bosses, and that would never do. So, as ever, the poor bloody infantry gets it. This of course ignores a simple fact of life. Police Officers go out and lock up because they are motivated. Next time these four bobbies see two girls being assaulted, perhaps they will think twice about making an arrest. Will that help the force performance? I think not. Having said that, some Chiefs would no doubt think that at least no arrest means fewer complaints! It is individuals like this who have dragged policing down to its current state of disrespect with the public.

Good luck to the officers, but I bet they get you on discipline whether or not you get cleared at the trial.

There is an interesting article in Police Review this week about police recruitment. In essence, this says that in half the forces in the country, recruitment has come to a standstill. So, what does this mean if you are applying to the service? Well, in essence, things just got a lot harder. Firstly, if your local force decides not to recruit, then no matter how hard you wish, nothing will change that decision. So, you may need to think about applying to a force that is recruiting, and accept that you may have to travel or move. (Easier to do where force borders are near to you, harder if you live in the middle of a big county area!).

But even if your force is recruiting, don’t think you are unaffected. To begin with, the number and quality of applicants will go up, as the motivated candidates from Force X find it is not recruiting, and so apply to your force. So, your competition just got stronger.

Add to this mix the recession, and there is another factor. A lot of talented people cannot get jobs elsewhere, and will try the police. This means even more competition, as these people will also be applying to the areas that are still recruiting.

So, life becomes very hard indeed.  Fewer forces recruiting, fewer places available in those that are, more high quality applicants prepared to travel, all equates to pass marks and increased standards. The moral of this, inevitably, is that now is the time you really squeeze every mark you can out of the assessment centre. Forces will start to cherry pick those people who score highest at assessment, so just passing will not cut any ice. Being good will not be good enough.

Failing the assessment meanwhile will just put you at the back of an ever expanding queue to reapply.

Which of course is where police recruitment training courses come in. If you are below par, we will help drag you up to a pass grade. Of you are good, we will help you get better, so that you will probably get an earlier intake place.

Been very busy this month, particularly on application forms, so sorry for not putting much on the blog. I will try to put something interesting on soon. We have had a few queries this week however on numbers of places left for Cardiff and Reading. At the time of writing, we have four places left for Cardiff, and five for Reading. We have to operate a numbers policy due to the fact that the trainer to student ratio has to be lept to a maximum number to ensure everyone gets two goes at a role play. Remember though that if the venue you want is full, the courses are identical so you can always pick one of the other ones.

Regards

John

Our Nottingham course only has a few places left if you are thinking about it. We have been really busy this week, especially on the application form checking front. Several forces have opened their recruitment lines, hence the rush on forms. Yet again though, moving back to the subject of getting into the job, despite what I have said on this blog, the advice we give in the police application form checking covering email, and the guidance we give out, I would say that three quarters of the forms we check d not deal with inappropriate conduct properly, to the extent that many would fail. I suspect this is because people have this view of the police that bobbies look after each other, and candidates want to show us that whilst they know inappropriate behaviour is wrong, they would not go overboard so nudge, nudge, wink, wink they would deal with it. This view is just SO wrong. Let me give you an example from Cheshire. There was an email going around a while back. It was  a set of crime scene photos from the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department). The LAPD had pursued a car theif onto the freeway. here the car stopped, and the thief tried to jump from one freeway onto another. Regrettably, he missed, and literally decapitated himself on a spiked fence underneath the freeway. The photos showed his head on the spiked fence whilst his body sat at the bottom of the fence. The photos were circulated bya control room operator to scores of people in the force. The subsequent discipline inquiry saw almost all of those people being subject to some form of disciplinary action for receiving inappropriate images. The point is that this is how severely the job views potentially inappropriate conduct (seniority excepted!)