Public service is essentially about acting with the best interests of the public in mind. The police are there to protect the public, and safeguard them from harm. Therefore, it’s important that your decisions are made with this aim in mind. You must be able to evaluate different strategies, how they will be of benefit to the wider public, and take responsibility to delivering upon these.

Openness to change is all about being able to adapt to new ways of working, and taking a flexible, positive approach to improvement and workplace change. The police are an innovative organisation, who are constantly updating their methods, and therefore it’s important that their staff can reflect this.

Service Delivery is all about the quality of your work and your output. You must show a good understanding of the police service’s aims and objectives, and in doing so present an organised, efficient and polite image to the public. It is essential that you are focused on the overall outcomes of the service, and can work quickly and accurately to achieve these.

As a police officer, your professionalism is absolutely integral. You are a representative of the police – a role model – and therefore it’s fundamental that you can present an honest and trustworthy approach to the public. By doing this, you can build confidence from the public in the police force, and deliver a far more
effective service.

You must be able to control your emotions when under high amounts of pressure, and exhibit strong levels of decision making. Police work is highly stressful, and will push you to your limits. Therefore, it’s vital that police employees can stay calm and collected, and manage their emotions.

Teamwork is a fundamental part of working as a police officer, and the better you can work as part of a collaborative unit, the better level of service you can provide to the public. Good police work is about building partnerships, not just with your colleagues, but with members of the public too.

It’s very important for police officers to be emotionally aware. Not only do you need to be emotionally aware towards the needs and feelings of others, but you also need to be emotionally aware of yourself.

In order to work as a police officer, it’s vital that you can take ownership and responsibility, and hold yourself accountable for your own actions. Part of this means accepting that sometimes minor mistakes will happen, but the way you deal with these is what is important. You must learn from your mistakes, and seek improvement-based feedback.

When working as a police officer, and a representative of the service, you must be polite and respectful with every person that you meet, and show that the police value the ideals of teamwork, collaboration and social unity. Remember that police officers are role models within society!

Police officers must show an understanding of how their behaviour impacts on the reputation of the service, and strive to make a positive contribution to this at all times. You must be focused on helping your teammates to achieve high standards, whilst maintaining your own.

As a police officer, your analytical skills are crucial. You must be able to apply these, and take an evidence based approach. This means using the evidence available to you effectively and efficiently, to gather as many facts and hard info as possible, before using this data in the most logical way.

Not everything is straightforward and ‘by the book’. There will always be problems which require an innovative and creative solution, and it’s your job to come up with this! Furthermore, it’s essential that you can take an open mind to new ways of working, and understand that continuous development is a necessity for any
police officer.