HOW TO BECOME A POLICE OFFICER

Applications can be accepted at the age of 18 for appointment at 18˝. There’s no upper age limit for applying to the police service.

• Candidates who have reached the age of 18 years may apply to become a police officer and can take up appointment on reaching the age of 18˝.
• There is no upper age limit for appointment, but bear in mind that the normal retirement age is 55 years and that new recruits are required to undertake a two-year probationary period.

There are no minimum or maximum height requirements to join the police force.

There are no formal educational requirements for recruitment to the police service, but applicants must take two written tests to ensure they have a reasonable standard of English, as well as a numeracy test. You’ll also need to be able pass our selection process and complete initial training (see below).

You must be a British citizen, an EC/EEA national or a Commonwealth citizen or foreign national with no restrictions on your stay in the United Kingdom. Foreign nationals and UK citizens who have lived abroad may have to wait some time for security and vetting clearance. All applicants have to be vetted to the same standard before appointment.

You will not be rejected because you cannot drive or swim.

You can only apply to one force at any one time. If you have previously applied to join the police service and been unsuccessful, you may not reapply for six months from the time you were notified of the outcome of your last application.

Find out which Force(s) in the area of the country that you would like to work in are recruiting and request an Application Pack.

On receiving your application form the force that you have applied to will check your eligibility and mark your competency questions.

Two weeks before attending the assessment centre you will be sent material for it. At the centre you will be tested on your written English skills, verbal reasoning, oral skills and your mathematical skills. The title for this combination of tests is the ‘Police Initial Recruitment Test‘ (PIRT).

These will be tested in a number of ways, interview, role-play and written tests.

The PIRT is quite a competitive process, with somewhere between 60,000 to 80,000 candidates applying to join the police service each year and about 8% being successful. To maximise your chances of success, you might like to make use of one of the professional companies that provide PIRT training.

For more information on PIRT click here

To see an example of a Verbal Reasoning Test, click here.

To see an example of a Numbers Skills Test, click here.

You will be invited to attend a medical and a fitness test. These may be on separate days.

There are two elements to the fitness test and you must pass both before you can be appointed. But don’t worry, the test is not difficult.

The police are looking for no more than the minimum standard needed to enable you to work effectively as a police officer. You will be given help to improve your fitness and if you prepare yourself properly, there is no reason for you to fail.

Even if you don’t pass the test at your first attempt you will be allowed to re-take it. However, if you fail the test after three attempts your application will be halted and you will not be eligible to re-apply for six months.

Once you are appointed you will need to maintain your fitness and you will be regularly assessed during probation.

Offers of appointment are subject to references and security checks. The references given in your application will be taken up and a security check will be conducted. Security checks can take a while if you have lived abroad for any period of time.