Two things inspired me to join the police. First was watching television coverage of the Stephen Lawrence murder when I was about 15 years old. In complete contrast to his attackers, Stephen looked like a lovely young man with a promising future. It made me angry and I wanted to see justice done.
Around the same time, by chance, my school allocated me work experience with the police. I subsequently joined my local police cadet scheme. As a 16/17-year-old girl I was speaking to the public, driving around on “blues and twos”, attending fights, police custody blocks and generally seeing people and parts of society that I would never have experienced otherwise. It drew me in.
Now, nearly two decades later, I’m a police inspector – a job I feel incredibly privileged to do. I’m afforded a great deal of responsibility in making decisions and no day is ever the same.
The rank of inspector is a middle management role within the police and, for me, it has the best of both worlds. I’m involved in local strategic decisions, yet at the same time it’s an operational role and I still go out with the team when larger or more critical incidents take place. Inspectors lead teams of people or large investigations. You’ll need to act with integrity at all times and have a set of values that are second to none, values which you’ll use daily to keep the public safe from threat, harm and risk.
What I love best about my job is doing the right thing. Working on behalf of the public gives me a real sense of satisfaction and justice, whether as a team we’ve arrested or charged the right people, helped a victim during a crisis point in their life or the everyday management of resources and balancing supply and demand. No decision or set of circumstances on any given day is ever the same as a decision you’ve had to make before, every day is unique.
As an inspector you’ll be in charge of your own team, but you’ll also regularly work with and draw on the collective experience of expert teams, whether it be domestic violence, intelligence, financial intelligence, high-tech crime or forensic.
Being an inspector is about managing your team so they keep the public safe every day and, when a crime does occur, bringing together teams of people to move an investigation forward and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Every case is unique, there is never the same victim, assault, robbery or murder. There will be things about each case that you don’t know, you are always learning. I’m glad it’s not a normal job – it’s a vocation.
Learn more about applying for Direct Entry to the police service at inspector level.
