What is really being proposed for special constables at the Met?
You may have noticed a flurry of stories about the Metropolitan Police proposing to make changes to the way they recruit and train new officers. Screaming newspaper headlines in late June and July gave the impression that all potential new recruits were going to be required to become unpaid, voluntary, special constables and to do a year’s voluntary work before being considered for posts as paid police officers. As Adam May reports, the actual proposal is rather more nuanced, but nonetheless it does raise some interesting issues about the relationship between paid and voluntary work, and the voluntary work ethos Until recently the Met has been taking raw recruits and training them to police officer level over about a year. The proposal is to replace this with multiple pathways to becoming a paid police officer. All of the pathways would be mapped out and set against competencies. The Met says that entrants would need to have completed a relevant portfolio of experience and have accredi
