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Community Policing Volunteer

We're looking for volunteers to play a new role in community policing. Could this be you?

As a Community Policing Volunteer (CPV) you’ll work closely with communities and businesses to promote community safety. You'll also identify and support vulnerable people through local engagement and working with partner agencies.

You could be responsible for patrolling a neighborhood, or in a more specific role. You will be supporting the community by;

Providing reassurance and point of contact in the community
Utilising your powers to deal with antisocial behaviour and traffic management
Working with them and partners to resolve longer term community problems.

Working closely with regular officers, special constables, PCSO’s and partner agencies to actively seek information and intelligence around criminal activity, disorderly or anti-social behaviour and provide feedback on outcome of police action.

Shift pattern

You can (but do not have to) serve in an area where or close to where you live, so you already have an understanding of the community issues and key people to network with.

We are looking for a commitment of 16 hours a month and we understand times and dates will vary depending on your other personal commitments. The core hours we are looking for support from you, are between 0700 and 2300, 7 days a week. In addition we would request your availability to support community events and parades working alongside Police cadets and the Special constabulary.

What we are looking for in you

As a Community Policing Volunteer you will need good communication skills to build trust and confidence in a community, so you can gain vital information and intelligence to build a picture of criminal activity. Being able to listen and manage information sensitively is also important, so you can make accurate and timely electronic submissions of actionable intelligence on criminal activity, anti-social behaviour and vulnerability.

Additional skills required
- An ability to remain calm under pressure and use non-confrontational skills.
- Ability to work alone or in a team.
- Ability to use their own initiative along with evidenced based decision making skills.
- Ability to recognise vulnerability or need for further intervention to safe guard an individual or community.
- Good health with ability to fulfil the requirement of being visible in the community on foot, cycle or horse back.
Main responsibilities
- Work as part of a team to provide a high visibility patrol capacity, maintaining public confidence and assurance through resource presence, reducing the fear of crime, assisting in the prevention and reduction of incidents of crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour whilst promoting community safety.
- Support police officers in building and maintaining community relations by providing a service that is responsive to the needs of all members of the community by establishing links, supporting victims of crime and ASB and responding to reported incidents which affect the quality of life.
- Provide a pro-active problem solving approach to community issues and develop working relationships with partner agencies and members of the community to implement sustainable solutions that support localised problems and the Control Strategy.
- Actively seek community information and intelligence to build a picture of local activity, making accurate and timely submissions of actionable intelligence on criminal activity, anti-social behaviour and vulnerability in support of Control Strategy objectives that will support enforcement overseen by the local CSU.
- Respond to appropriate incidents as directed and actively support police operations and events.
- Attending court to give evidence as necessary, in order to maximise prosecution and conviction opportunities for criminal activity or ASB sanctions.

Am I eligible to apply?

About you
- I'm an EEA or Swiss National*.
- I've lived in the UK continuously for the last 3 years**.
- I'm 18 years old (you can apply when you're 17 as long as you're 3 months or less away from your 18th birthday).
- I hold a full UK manual driving license (with 6 points or less on it).
- I don't have any tattoos or piercings which cause offence, are excessive or deemed unprofessional
- Any previous criminal convictions or cautions (including those spent), fixed penalty notices, traffic offences or any involvement with the police must be declared and they may affect your application.
- I'm not registered bankrupt or subject to CCJs or IVAs (IVAs will be considered on a case by case basis).
*Commonwealth citizens and foreign nationals can also apply if you have leave to enter or remain in the UK indefinitely and you're free of restrictions.
**Not applicable if you've been serving abroad with the military.
Qualifications
Medical standards

All roles within the police need to be resilient enough to cope with the demands and pressures of the role so applicants should be in good health mentally and physically.

Take a look at the medical standards for more information about some of the conditions that can exclude you and those that are acceptable. You are asked to provide a medical certificate from your own Doctor to confirm you meet this assessment standard on application.

You may need to complete an endurance fitness test by running a 15m track in time with bleeps which get increasingly faster.

We are looking for no more than the minimum standard to enable you to work effectively as a Community Policing Volunteer. You'll be given help to improve your fitness and if you prepare yourself properly, there is no reason for you to fail.

before you apply

Top tips

Sometimes we use competency-based application and assessment processes. If you haven't used these methods before, refer to this page to find out more.

Make sure you've read about the job responsibilities above in the full along with the skills and eRecruitment guidance before starting your application.

Within the application form you must answer the following questions in no more than 500 words (max 166 per question). We'd advise you think about this first and pre-write your answers.

1)      Why do you want to become a Community Policing Volunteer?
2)      What skills do you have to help you perform the role of Community Policing Volunteer?
3)      Why do you think the skills you have described in Q2 are relevant to the role of Community Policing Volunteer?

Within your answers please include any experience, skills and abilities you feel you have that will make you suitable. Your response could include how you may have resolved a difficult situation, managed conflict or worked with other agencies or partners for your community.

Recruitment for this role has now closed.

What happens next?

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between this and other uniform voluntary roles within the police?

A Special Constable is a volunteer police officer trained to use the full range of policing powers, including the power of arrest, to support their police officer colleagues.

A Community Policing Volunteer has minimum policing powers; this role is focused more on supporting the local community.

A cadet is a young person aged 13-17 who does not have any policing powers but instead takes part in voluntary work with the police in the local community.
How long will the training take and what’s involved?
Initial training will be carried out over 5 weekends within a 10 week period, starting on 9th February 2018. This is a rolling programme so there will be further start dates throughout the year. If you pass the knowledge based training period, you will then be mentored by a PCSO to make sure you have developed all the core skills necessary to work independently. Once you have been signed off to work independently, we can review the opportunity for you to specialise in other disciplines and skills.

The specialist roles we are looking at currently are:
- Horseback visible policing
- Cycling
- Dog walking
- Skill based investigation support, such as mental health, restorative justice and cybercrime.

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