Police officers that choose to remain as patrol constables have the role of working in schools. Whilst working in schools they would talk to the children about issues such as diversity, personal safety, the importance of why not to make prank calls to 999, they would also aware the children about drugs and paedophiles. This would mean that the officer doing this job would have to be well informed about such issues and would have to be confident enough to speak about them to large groups. This type of role would help the police to build up their relationship with the younger generation; therefore this role is very important. Some schools even have their own constables which work onsite.
A police community support officer (PCSO) has the role of supporting the police force. The role of the community support officer’s is to be visible in places were anti-social behaviour could take place, as a way to prevent it. The PCSO’s have a similar tasks to patrol constables in the view that they reduce the fear of crime to the public. The duties of the PCSO’s are to deal with any anti-social behaviour, such as graffiti and youth nuisance, kids bunking off school (truancy), and litter. Their other duties are to protect and support the public from crime, detaining suspects until a police officer comes to take control of the situation.
The PCSO’s do the work of the traditional police which involve a lower-level crime so that the police could attend to the more serious crimes. The PCSO’s like the police, they have their own uniform which is similar to the police forces. This helps the PCSO’s to show the public that they are reliable.
The role of a police dog handler is to assist the police in the prevention and detection of crime and often to locate missing people or offenders that are trying to hide from the police to avoid being caught.
Over time the role of the police dog within police work has grown hugely and they are now used as part of a wider strategy, which includes searching for explosive devices, weapons, narcotics, money and dead bodies. There are different dogs for different roles. They also help to search for missing people or injured people. In some cases the role of the dog handlers is to protect people in situations were it is becoming out of hand such as football matches.
The dog handlers and the dogs are used in many places such as airports in the customs team and border force to detect illegal substances that are being brought into the country by passengers
When a person joins the police they like to research about the conditions of the service to make sure that the job would suit them best. Mainly the research they conduct would include the starting salary, how many hours and holidays they get off from work, how long they would service in the job and what age he or she would retire from the job and if they are able to claim certain benefits after retirement such as pension, some people like to also check the shift patterns to see if they are suited for their lifestyle.
In the police service the starting salary of a typical police constable would approximately £20,000 per year. They would also get 23 days of holiday for the first 5 years which would rise after the 5 years however they don’t have any set lengths of service which they have to fulfil and would retire from any age between 60 and 65 depending on their rank within the police service however if they have the option to retire and get full pension if they have served for 30 years, at any age. The shift pattern would vary between the forces however every officer would have to do 40 hour of work per week in the police service.
