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

As if to prove what I am always saying, the new police assessment exercises that came in on Nov 1st 2009 and will run until the last day of April 2010 are again biased heavily towards dealing with diversity issues. I was discussing this with a contact who is involved in recruitment in Cheshire. Whilst it is arguably as to what extent ones ability to be a good police officer is tested, there is a obvious run on diversity issues. In three of the four role plays, there are elementsof either sexuality or race issues to be dealt with. And yet oddly enough, the two new written exercises deal with issues that could have been written to give existing specials and CSO’s an unfair advantage in the process. This is because they deal with such things as disorder and operational tactics that any police trained candidate would have  a good head start on. The interview questions are okay as far as it goes.

The morla of the story is to clearly understand how to deal with diversity. If you do not know how to challenge effectively, the way the police want you to, as opposed to the way you think it should be done, you will be dead. And ironically, this will catch out many specials and CSO’s who would normally have been expected to go through. The police culture is in some ways quite bullying, if you offend the establishment! Where existing specials and CSO’s go wrong is that they know that the senior force management will brush off uncomfortable truths regarding issues, and bury them. So, in assessment, they often try to do the same, and are failed by the same people who in a few months time, had they been successful, would have been telling them to bend the rules over detections or response figures!

The new police assessment exercises would suit diversity advisers better than police officers, but nevertheless, to pass, you need to understand all about diversity, the police way!

We have of course altered the emphasis of our course to reflect this new shift in the police assessment exercises.

Found out that the Northumbria police assessmenst are the first week in january today, so have moved the course we had planned for January forward to acommodate this. Alreday had a fair few bookings for it, so if you want to attend, please book as soon as. We normally have good group numbers in Newcastle, and they normally as a force have a good few people passing. Like quite  afew forces, if this happens this time, you could well find like Gwent or Avon and Somerset that they will just take the highest scores.

Linked in with that, I had a conversation with a PCSO from Gwent a few weeks ago, who was confident that he did not need a course like ours as his background as a CSO would be all he needed. I pointed out that if that were the case, he ought to consider two key points.

1. If that were true, then why did he know loads of cso’s who had tried and failed before to get in (and the same goes of course for Special Constables). Secondly, if the police background was such a huge help, then all the other CSO/Specials would also have the same advantage, and the force could not have enough vacancies to possibly fit them all in.

he didn’t believe me, but after another call this week assures me he will be coming on a course for his next application having failed!

had he come with us, he would probably have been in by now!

Regards

John

Just a note for those of you going for the Gwent police assessment centre in December. We have put on a course in Cardiff to have a venue in Wales. However, we will only have a small number of places on it as we have other commitments the same day. If you want a place on this, book early.

I mentioned a while back about doing a course in Liverpool where we had some real issues about integrity and “doing the right thing”. It is clear that most people outside of the job think that we in the police all look after one another and that you should be mindful of the feelings of everyone in a situation concerning inappropriate conduct. Typically, when we are talking about dealing with inappropriate behaviour, I get examples like:

“A new starter came to my office. Over a period of a few weeks, it was clear that homophobic comments were being made to them. I could see they were clearly upset by the remarks. “A new starter came to my office. Over a period of a few weeks, it was clear that homophobic comments were being made to them. I could see they were clearly upset by the remarks.  The next time I was present when XXX behavior happened, I immediately asked the offender to step outside, so as not to cause a scene. I explained to them that their comments were unacceptable, and if they happened again, I would report them”

 The next time I was present when XXX behaviour happened, I immediately asked the offender to step outside, so as not to cause a scene. I explained to them that their comments were unacceptable, and if they happened again, I would report them”

People think this is a great answer, but it is RUBBISH!!!! If you come out with an answer like that, you will fail the police recruitment process, and can forget any hopes of joining the police for at least six months. Look at the example this way:

“A new starter came to my office. Over a period of  a few weeks, it was clear that homophobic comments were being made to them.(SO YOU ARE TELLING THE ASSESSORS YOU SAT ON YOUR BACKSIDE AND DID NOTHING ABOUT THIS BEHAVIOUR FOR SEVERAL WEEKS, SO ARE YOU THE RIGHT PERSON FOR US?)

 I could see they were clearly upset by the remarks. (WELL, HOW SENSITIVE ARE YOU? BUT OF COURSE, HAD YOU POSSESSED THE NERVE TO DO SOEMTHING AS SOON AS THE BEHAVIOUR STARTED, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED! SO, YOU HAVE ADED TO THE PROBLEM.

“A new starter came to my office. Over a period of a few weeks, it was clear that homophobic comments were being made to them. I could see they were clearly upset by the remarks.  The next time I was present when XXX behaviour happened, I immediately asked the offender to step outside, so as not to cause a scene. I explained to them that their comments were unacceptable, and if they happened again, I would report them”

. (WHAT A WASTE OF BREATH! WOULD YOU HAVE ASKED AN ASSAULT VICTIM IF HE DID NOT MIND BEING BEATEN UP? WHAT IF HE SAID HE WAS FINE WITH BEING HOMOPHOBICALLY ABUSED, WOULD YOU LEAVE IT AT THAT?

 The next time I was present when XXX behavior happened, I immediately asked the offender to step outside, so as not to cause a scene. (TWO ISSUES HERE. FIRSTLY, IT ONLY HAPPENED AGAIN AS YOU DID NOT DO ANYTHING ALL OF THE OTHER TIMES. SECONDLY, WHY DID YOU ASK THEM TO STEP OUTSIDE? YOU SHOULD BE SETTING AN EXAMPLE TO THE GROUP, IN PUBLIC)

 I explained to them that their comments were unacceptable, and if they happened again, I would report them” (THIS IS NOT A POSITVE RESULT, IT IS YOU BEING WEAK. A GOOD CANDIDATE WILL EXPLAIN HOW THEY EXPLAINED TO THE OFFENDER HOW UNACEPTABLE THE COMMENTS WERE, AND THEY THEN APOLOGISED TO THE VICTIM, AND LEARNT FROM THEIR MISTAKES. THEN, YOU REPORTED THEM TO THE BOSS ANYWAY. THIS IS WHAT WE WANT.

If you cannot see the logic in all of this, you will struggle to pass the police recruitment process. Joining the police force requires you to understand challenging inappropriate behavior, and if you would have been happy with the first example, you need to have a good rethink