Overview
When it comes to the needs of the community, where do your priorities lie? Are you indifferent, or concerned?
If you fall into the latter category, then you should volunteer as a special constable. Because that’s all you need to get started – the desire to give something back to the community, along with a willingness to dedicate at least 16 hours of your spare time every month to helping and supporting regular police officers.
stella's video
Special constables can and do come from all walks of life. But once they're in uniform, they're simply one part of a professional team providing a vital service to the community, just like any other constable.
For many, that's precisely the appeal. For others, there's also the fact that the experience of being a special constable can be useful preparation for applying to become a regular officer.
Whatever your own reasons for joining, there's no doubt that the skills, insights and resourcefulness you'll pick up - first from your training, and then from accompanying regular officers on duty - will stand you in good stead for most things that life can throw at you.
This section of the site aims to give you a clear first-hand picture of what it means to be a
special constable, as well as show the
training that we offer, and give some insight into our
application process. You can also find
all the answers to some of the popular questions we hear about becoming a special constable.
For further details about where you can work and what to expect, you can download the
"Joining the Specials" booklet (MS Word doc, 50k).
If you don't have Microsoft Word installed, you can
download Microsoft's free Word Document Viewer here.
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