So What Next? 

We posed the age old question that has faced police officers approaching their 30 years service to John Wood, Director of Servoca Resourcing Solutions.

I started working in Criminal Justice recruitment back in 2004 and when I told people that I found jobs for ex-police officers, 99 times out of 100 they would say “What? In security?” Because undoubtedly, traditional thinking was that was just what ex-coppers did.

Although times have changed significantly since then, there are some officers who haven’t realised this and that is where we come in.

Based in Central London, Servoca Resourcing Solutions specialises in working with former police officers, and other members of the public sector, civil and criminal justice fraternity. We have been involved within police recruitment and services since 2002 and have supplied to over 75% of police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Servoca has provided resource domestically and internationally to police forces for operational, strategic, supervisory and managerial roles across the investigative, enforcement, compliance and intelligence disciplines, and can offer a range of additional skills and services that may not reside in-force due to cuts, efficiencies or lack of need on a permanent or ongoing basis.

We provide contract, permanent and fixed term opportunities to former officers whether they have completed their full term of pensionable service or, as is increasingly often the case, they have decided to leave the service earlier to pursue other career opportunities. These roles may be full or part time or in some cases on an occasional ad-hoc basis.

As well as working with police forces, Servoca’s client base extends beyond the immediate police family. We have identified contract and permanent opportunities across a range of public and private sector organisations as well as some within the third sector for individuals registered with us.

Predominantly, the most common denominators here are that they are all organisations that require investigative, enforcement, intelligence or compliance related skills and experience. Coincidentally, skills that are highly prevalent within the police service. They may be central government departments or banks, charities or public/private sector partnerships.

On top of those easily recognisable areas of experience, former police officers also possess a range of “soft” skills that often go unrecognised in themselves but are apparent to alternative potential employers and that they could benefit from.

Skills such as conflict resolution and immediate or projected risk assessment are part of the everyday job for many police officers, whether in uniform or otherwise. Many former officers do not appreciate that the “people“ skills that they have developed over the course of their service are exactly that, skills, skills which not everybody has or have to use to anything approaching the same level that they most likely have done in their policing role. To be able to gain access to that type of knowledge, knowledge and experience that can be shared with new colleagues is seen as an undoubted benefit for many employers.

With the increase in recent years of collaborative and partnership working, officers are often used to operating within these types of arrangements, whether they be in lead or contributory roles. This has also opened many of them to a greater understanding of the differences in culture that they may face when they leave the service.

One of the biggest criticisms I would often hear regarding former officers when placed into non-policing work environments was that they were not very flexible in their working practices. This is hardly surprising as many grew up in a heavily rank structured, results driven working environment where instruction was not questioned or discussed, just acted upon, an approach which served forces well for many years but is somewhat out of step with modern policing and commercial practices. Recognising this, many employers are now more actively engaging former officers for the insight and experience that they can bring, gained from their time working within the police service.

We have also seen demand grow for former detectives to work across a number of areas. It is difficult to ignore the increasing number of reviews and historical or legacy investigations as well as the effect that some of these have had on current case numbers; the “Saville” effect as it has become known for instance in relation to the significant increase in reports of current and historical child abuse. All of this is against a backdrop of “business as usual” for forces and other law enforcement bodies alike.

Demand for certain skills will tend to fluctuate and generally will be closely aligned to the key policing trends and priorities of the time. So by way of example, the most in-demand / requested skill types at the moment are:

• Public Protection
• Child Abuse
• Child Sexual Exploitation
• Digital / Cyber Forensics
• Review Officers
• HOLMES Specialists
• Intelligence Analysts & Researchers

As well as recruiting on behalf of a variety of clients, Servoca will also engage former officers directly to deliver outsourced services to a range of criminal and civil justice organisations as part of Servoca Managed Services.

Servoca Managed Services deliver bespoke managed and outsourced services covering a wide range of civil and criminal justice needs, from independent investigations through to training, taped interview transcription to professional witnesses. We have extensive experience in working within the police, civil and criminal justice sector, and have the capability to assist with an array of managed outsourcing needs.

With the wide ranging changes across the police and public sector, and the focus on greater efficiencies needing to be implemented, Servoca are listening to organisations to understand where they see these efficiencies being found, and how we can make available services that can help address them while they maintain the level of performance and delivery that is expected from them, whether they are fully outsourced services or purely resource based solutions.

In terms of Servoca Managed Services, we are always keen to hear from candidates with Professional Standards (especially Conduct & Harassment), low level surveillance or anyone with tape transcription experience.

Registering with us is simple and free. For anybody wishing to register with us they can call our Police Recruitment team on 0207 747 3044 or email their details or CV to srs@servcoa.com.

If you do not have a CV, we are more than happy to provide advice on how to create one, especially as we appreciate that detailing 30 years of police service on 2 sheets of A4 paper is not necessarily the easiest of undertakings, and deciding what to include and what to leave out can lead to hours of reflection and deliberation.

Alternatively if you just want to get an idea of the type of roles that we specialise in, whether now or in the future, you
can visit our website,
www.servocaresourcing.com, as well as follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

So, to return to this article’s opening question, what is next? Well the answer is pretty much whatever you want, especially if you want to continue actively using the skills you have gained in your policing life. The bigger decision is probably whether you want to remain purely within the working surroundings that have got you to this point or if you are keen to try something different and utilise your experiences in a new and potentially more personally challenging environment.