John Sutherland still vividly remembers the exact time he decided he wanted to be a police officer.
“I was 16 standing at a bus stop at Hammersmith Broadway waiting for my bus to school and saw a policeman walking down the other side of the road towards me. He was probably a bit tired, hungry and cold but something went click. It was the moment that it all began.”
That was 22 years ago. Today 44-year-old Sutherland is a chief superintendent at Scotland Yard. Sutherland, like generations before him, rose to the top by working his way through the ranks starting off as a police constable.
But now a new route has opened up for those senior leaders outside the Service who want to become a police superintendent and bring their expertise, fresh ideas and new ways of working to the Service.
The Direct Entry Programme for Superintendents is a national 18-month fast-track training programme which was launched last year. In 2014 there were over 900 expressions of interest, with over 500 applications for nine places – five of whom joined the Met. This year, as applications open for the second cohort, the Met is hoping to find at least another 10 trainees.
Sutherland, who has responsibility for the Met’s Direct Entry recruits, says successful applicants will have to illustrate substantial leadership qualities if they want to join the top 1% of the Met’s senior officers. “The five recruits we have now are quite a diverse bunch – there is no cookie cutter requirement. The thing they have in common is that they are passionate about the police and also about public service. All of them have something in their DNA which is about serving the public.”
Good communication skills and a “dose of common sense” are the key skills required to be a superintendent, he says. “Anybody can learn about law and procedures but it’s those people skills which are much harder to learn. We are looking for people who are natural leaders and communicators and who carry that sense of vocation because this is more than a job or a career.”
Candidates need to have experience of leading a large team and managing a large budget. Experience of change management, problem solving and corporative communications are also vital, explains Sutherland. “The X factor is operational risk management and fast time decision making. You need to be unflappable and calm under pressure because we are talking about decisions which can be the difference between life and death.”
There is no typical day as a superintendent in the Met, which Sutherland says is part of the attraction. “If you are a uniformed superintendent in a London borough then your job is about leading people – chairing meetings, communicating messages, going out on patrol and taking briefings,” says Sutherland. “It’s also about managing resources and getting the right people with the right kit in the right place at operational level. You are responsible for getting feet on the street – you have to manage that basic emergency service; where to put people and manage their deployment.”
It is that role which Sutherland relished when he was a superintendent: “I loved the operational responsibility, having responsibility for other uniformed police officers – coppers are extraordinary people.” But this is not a frontline crime-solving job: “You are part of the bigger crime picture; you don’t spend your time investigating individual crimes but you do lead those who are,” he explains.
Working with partners outside the Service – such as local authorities, charities and the local community – to address issues around gang crime, is another core responsibility. “One of the things I felt very strongly about when I was a superintendent was gangs and violence amongst young people. Being a superintendent allowed me to work alongside the community and see real change. I had the opportunity to do things which resulted in fewer young people being stabbed. The job satisfaction is off the scale in terms of what you can do in a day.”
Sutherland is frank when he says that not all days ended well. “I still remember very vividly sitting in full uniform at the funeral of a 15 year old boy who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You confront death and trauma and enormous sadness. It can challenge your emotional resilience.” But help is always at hand to get you through those moments, he says, including informal networks of peers and the national Superintendents’ Association, which is the professional body, a national network of advice and support. “There is also a lot of corporate health and welfare support at the Met. You are only ever a phone call away from any amount of specialist support and advice. That is the extraordinary thing about the Met – help is never far away.”
Sutherland, who has now spent half his life as a police officer, has no regrets about that decision he took as a young teenager to join the Service. “It’s a job like no other. It is absolutely the best job in the world.”
The Met believes the Direct Entry Programme for Superintendents represents an opportunity for outstanding people to test themselves as never before and, in so doing, make a lasting difference to the communities of London. It views diversity as fundamental to its success and wants a workforce made up from all of London’s communities to tackle today’s complex policing challenges. It welcomes applications for the Direct Entry Programme from across the community.
Produced by Guardian Professional to a brief agreed with the Metropolitan police. Funded by the Metropolitan police.
