Just heard this interesting peice of news. Norfolk Police have decided that for candidates who have passed the national police assessment system, they want them to do a presentation on how they will put into effect the force values and objectives. What  a complete load of rubbish. Lets just think about this for a minute. Lets ignore the fact that these candidates have just passed a national system, which, weak and flawed though it is, has been adopted by all English and Welsh forces, as well as BTP etc. This is the system which means in most forces, you will have been classed as having proved yourself as having the skills to be a police officer. But let us ignore it. Norfold clearly feel that this does not evidence clearly enough these skills, otherwise they would not feel the need to do something else QED. But why  a presentation? Why on that topic? This is the kind of presentation topic that would form part of an Inspectors board, not a poor bloody PC. How many average people give presentations? Especially if they are young, or from a disadvantaged background and are in the process of clawing themselves up? This presentation merely gives a big advantage to Specials and CSO’s (whihc may be no bad thing), while being exclusionary. Unless you hapen to be  asales rep, most people will not have  a clue how to start this. And before Norfolk police recruitment say this is the point, why don’t any other forces use presentations? Is it harder to police Norfolk than Merseyside or Manchester? Do Norfolk officers need to be better communicators than those working Brixton or Toxteth? No of course not. This is just someones bright idea to cut down numbers of successful aplicants, and has not been though through fully. I bet you this daft idea disappears within a year, and is never used again. Any takers?

Integrity is an issue that crops up all the time in the police recruitment process (and indeed the police). Whether at the police national assessment process, or at a final police interview, the issue is constantly being monitored. The theory is that any behaviour that is unethical is completely unacceptable, and that is what you must strive for. The reality in many forces is a bit more flexible. In Cheshire police, a little while back, images from the LAPD were circulated around the force by a control room operator. The images were LAPD crime scene photos of an incident where someone was being chased by the police, and had jumped off an elevated freeway to try and escape. Regrettably, they had missed the other freeway they were trying to jump onto, and fallen. In doing so, they had fallen onto a metal spiked fence, like that outside a park or church. The photos showed the persons head actually mounted in effect on the spike from the fall. The body was sitting at the base of the fence. The guy didn’t have a long neck, the fall had detached his head from his body. To make matters worse, he happened to be black. Another force had quickly taken action against everyone who had received this email. Cheshire however in the main had quiet words with people (the original source in the control room resigned). The point is that Cheshire Police took a very softly, softly approach to this, presumably hoping that they would get away without any adverse publicity (which they did). Other forces who were more honest about what had happened caught a lot of publicity. There was a rumour going about at the time that the main reason for this was that one of the control room operators involved was the daughter of a very senior officer (hence informal and non career damaging advice), but even I am not convinced that the force would be this blatant!

My point is that in police role plays and in interview, you need to be seen to be actively challenging inappropriate behaviour of any kind. If you do not (unless your dad is a senior officer), then you will be on your way to failing.

Just got this email today.

Hi John just thought i would let you know i have passed got 60%.I had been waiting ages for my results so i finally rang them today. The guy said that 60% is quite good……. not sure about that but its a pass so i am over the moon. Not got the break down of my score but obviously the role plays must have gone my way to a degree. Still not sure what, if anything i did wrong in the role play, your thoughts are always welcome. (i sent you a mail regarding this a few weeks ago)

My response is that what you did write or wrong does not matter, what DOES matter is the fact that you passed. The police assessment centre pass mark varies from either 50 or 60%, but provided you pass it who cares? One point worth making though is the value of doing a course. If the course gets you just a bare pass, what would you have go without it?

The key message whether it be the police interviews, police assessment centre or the police application form, is that you have got to work at it and prepare.

For those of you who have doen the police recruit assessment already, have a read of an earlier blog entry talkin about not having an autopsy on your performance before you get your result!

Had to write this quickly. Had three example forms this week where people had used examples of challenging behaviour that was bullying or discrimnatory (Q1 in the competency application section of the application form) without thinking about what they are saying. All involved situations where the applicant saw a series of actions, e.g. leting a colleague be sexist to a member of staff over several days/weeks, then they went to speak to their colleague, checked they were unhappy, then finally did something about it! THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG! Think about what they are really saying. 1. They saw a series of events they knew were wrong, but did nothing initially. Therefore they are allowing this to carry on. Not good. 2. They are saying that if their mate had not anted them to do anything, they would not have, otherwise why ask them? We want to hear examples where as soon as you notice the behaviour, you challenge it there and then, to set an example to others. Anything else is ducking your responsibiity!

I know that people get fed up of reading testimonials, but you will excuse me if I put in the following. We had a large group booking for the police assessment centre course in one particular area. It was a great result for the people involved, and means that Talking Blues coached around 15% of that forces recruit intake for this year . This is the whole text of the email. I admit, we are blowing our own trumpet, but hey, so what! WELL DONE TO ALL THOSE STUDENTS, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

I have just had my results and have passed scoring 68%. As it looks at the moment, the majority of my group who came on the course have passed, apart from one (possibly two.)
If I am honest, I wasn’t confident coming out from the centre although looking back on it I don’t think I could have passed without attending your course.
I think the only bit of constructive criticism I have would be the size of the slides on the print out could have done with being a bit bigger.
In response to feedback for your website, please feel free to put this on:
The course was professionally run and extremely informative but at the same time laid back, easy to understand and excellent for developing an understanding of what is needed on the centre day. The trainers were friendly, approachable and put information accross in such away that it was fun to learn encompassing real examples of life experiences.
The role-play practicals were a great help and gave a hands on practical experience of what is expected.
It was a very long day however the time flew by and before you knew it, it was the end of the day. I really do not think I would have been successful had I not attended this course. Thanks very much.
Again, thank-you very much, I will be recommending you.

The writer was part of a large group that had booked on together. The same day, another member of the group also wrote in:

John, just a quick message to let you know I got my results this week and passed with 75% overall !I also know that 5 others who attended the course with me in March also passed with good results. I just want to say thank you, I found your course to be extremely beneficial to my preparation and performance, and as a result there were no surprises on the day. To anyone who is not feeling confident after they have come out of the assessment centre, don’t worry, I felt the same, as did everyone else I spoke to. It is difficult to tell if you did good or not. Again, thank you for your assistance and insight.