Before becoming a police officer in 2001, I had varying jobs including working with people with learning disabilities, working in schools as a smoking cessation officer, and working in the civil side of policing as a case progression officer. I also spent one year as a Special Constable before joining the Metropolitan Police full-time as a constable
I spent my first two years of policing working as a response constable, spending my duty time responding to calls from the public who needed an immediate response to a policing matter.
I then spent 2 years working as a uniformed investigation officer, which included investigating more complex crimes as well as following up on inquiries resulting from reported crimes and detainees arrested by police officers. This included Golden Hour inquiries and ensuring that all evidence was gathered as soon as practicable possible to ensure the best possibility of conviction or alternative case disposal.
After this I spent two years as a community Safer Neighbourhoods officer, my role here was to enhance relations between the Police and the local community and deal with more specific issues that affected residents within a council ward.
After this, I relocated to central London where I once again joined a response team. Here though there were different responsibilities as the area I policed was highly populated by visitors. This meant I needed to use different types of policing skills to assist people from all over the world.
I also policed Westminster which included many tourist attractions, such as the changing of the guard and other Royal and parliament-related duties.
Due to relocation, I transferred to Lincolnshire Police where I was a response officer. This included duties as detailed above. During this time I decided to move into the specialty of police training and assessment. This I Did until 2022 when I decided to take a career break to pursue a role working for the Catholic Church.
In 2016, I was ordained a Deacon in the Catholic Church. This role is a voluntary lay role which I was able to do alongside my job as Police Constable. Part of this role was being a chaplain to both a local hospital and Hospice and I specialised in ministering to people who were receiving palliative care.
I have also for many years ran a team of volunteer stewards who have assisted at many events organised by the Church. This has utilised all the skills I have gained over the years of experience as a police officer.
Recently, I was engaged by the University of East London as an independent assessor for the PCDA route into policing, this has enabled me to continue to use my assessment skills and great knowledge of policing to assist and develop the next generation of officers which I find so valuable and rewarding.
The reason I wish to be considered for the role as an independent assessor is for entirely the reasons mentioned above. I thoroughly enjoyed my time training and assessing police officers. Using the wealth of experience that I have gained over the years, I can give this knowledge to new officers to assist them to achieve the highest possible standard to ensure that the police continue to serve the public enhancing trust and confidence.
I believe in the qualification to enhance the professionalism of policing going forward, I take great pride in assisting students with their learning and development, and with my skill set and experience, I know that will be an asset in relation to the assessment of these qualifications.
2014 - 2022
Police Trainer, Assessor and IQA
Lead Assessor for the Initial police learning and development program.
This included the following responsibilities
Candidate Assessor
Police Trainer
I also had responsibility for specialised areas of police training, including
In addition to the above I also
2008 -2014
Response officer
As per responsibilities listed above under response Constable