Volunteers have been at the heart of the British public sector for years and nowhere more visibly than in the police service. Introduced in 1831, the Metropolitan Special Constabulary is one of Britain's oldest voluntary services and today comprises more than 5,000 volunteer police officers, otherwise known as special constables.
Although special constables are volunteers in the sense that they give up their spare time and are unpaid, in every other respect, they hold the same powers, duties and responsibilities as regular police officers, each giving up at least 200 hours of his or her spare time a year for active, front line duties.
What's more, the Met is currently recruiting for new special constables and with vacancies in boroughs right across London, there has rarely been a better time to apply.
"I can truly say that being a special has been one of the most enjoyable, rewarding experiences of my life," says Josh Town, 53, who first joined up in 2006. A senior IT manager at HSBC's Canary Wharf headquarters and keen biker in his spare time, Town first heard about special constables from his buddies on the police-led BikeSafe scheme. "It was appealing timing," he says. "I'd been thinking maybe there was a way of giving something back. This seemed like a good opportunity to try something out and see if it was for me."
The special constable recruitment process is divided into two stages: a simple-to-complete online application form, followed by two selection days at the Met's Hendon Training School, including an interview, written exam and a medical and fitness test. Unlike regular job applications that assess qualifications and role-specific experience, the Met is looking for transferable skills, such as personal responsibility, effective communication and working well in a team.
Only professions with a direct conflict of interest - for example probation officers, armed forces, politicians and security officers are ineligible. Nor is age, sex or ethnicity a barrier to volunteering as a special constable. "One of the best things about the Special Constabulary is that it really seems to represent the public it serves," says Town, who remembers a wide range of candidates on his selection day.
On being accepted, Town happily discovered that HSBC was already signed up to Employer Supported Policing (ESP), a scheme allowing employees paid leave for their police training and duties. This meant he was able to opt for the intensive 23-day training programme, though trainees with less flexible working hours can attend consecutive Saturdays or Sundays instead.
Either way, the course mixes classroom work on legislation and procedure – how to search for concealed weapons, how to make an arrest – with role-plays teaching new recruits not only how to act like police officers, but think like them too. "I'm no shrinking violet," says Town, "but by the end of the course, a lot of people who had never stood up in front of anyone before were volunteering for the next presentation. From an employer's point of view, that's the kind of training you can never buy."
For his first posting, Town was assigned to a busy Safer Neighbourhood Team based at Charing Cross Police Station. There, he was given a fellow special as a mentor who showed him around the station, found him a locker and helped with his special's uniform – just like a regular police officer's except for the 'SC' embroidered on the epaulettes.
Town recalls the nerves of his first shift. "When you walk out of the station yard, you realise this is not dressing up anymore. People are looking at you a different way as if you have this force-field around you; they're not seeing a member of the public. They're seeing a police officer." But with his colleague by his side, he soon felt at ease and returned home at the end of his shift with a real sense of achievement.
Covent Garden proved a great training ground, with a surprisingly diverse community, not just tourists but local residents and business owners, too. "The people you really get to know are the local community – the vicar, the priest, the people who live on the street – and your job is to build a relationship with them." Shift duties ranged from diffusing a drunken Cup Final Day pub fight to cordoning off an electrical fire in the middle of Covent Garden piazza.
"Being a volunteer police officer teaches you to make decisions on the spot," he says," and that's something you can take back to your day job. It also gives you real confidence – I wouldn't have dreamed of going up to a bunch of football supporters with lager in their hands before. Now, I wouldn't be so nervous."
Continuous training is not only offered but compulsory, and if you have the capacity and desire to learn, says Town, you will be in your element. Far from being tricky to balance with everyday life, a special's work is a welcome break from the office. "I completely escape from the stress of my bank job when I'm on shift," he says. "Policing takes up all your attention. You have to give 110% or why are you there?" The joy of swapping his BlackBerry for a police radio never tires, he adds. Town even volunteered for an extra shift on the day of the Royal Wedding.
It all adds up to the kind of volunteering where you can really make a difference. "It's not like being a police officer, it is being a police officer," as the old specials slogan goes. Town puts it this way: "I take my role in the police as seriously as my career because I want to do it well. The most enjoyment you get from it is when you show enthusiasm to learn. The regulars love teaching you and they respect you all the more for the fact that you're doing it in your own time."
This article has been sponsored by Metropolitan Police.
