APPLYING FOR A ROLE

Firstly, you’ll have to fill out an online application form. This gives us all of the details we need to identify whether you’re eligible to go through to the next stage.

Please note, our application form does ask you to provide quite a bit of your personal details about a wide range of topics. This includes information about your family, tattoos, business interests, financial position, and any previous convictions or involvement with the police (visit our Entry Requirements section to find out more).

After submitting your application, we’ll shortlist it against our national recruitment criteria.

We’ll let you know the outcome within six weeks from submitting your application.

If you’re successfully shortlisted, we’ll invite you to a telephone interview with a member of our Police Officer Recruitment team.

In the telephone interview, we’ll ask you three questions related to your application.

Your responses will then be scored against the role profile for an Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO).

If you successfully pass the telephone interview, we’ll let you know within three working days, and invite you to attend an Assessment Centre at the next opportunity.

During the Assessment Centre, we’ll invite you to undertake a variety of different tasks.

There will be a group assessment, we’ll then test your dexterity and ability to take instruction when handling weapons in our firearms assessment.

At the end, you’ll then complete a competency-based interview, which is designed to enable you to provide examples of evidence of past actions as a predictor of future behaviour. 

Upon passing the assessment centre, we’ll ask you to undergo a medical examination. This includes a fitness assessment. Typically there will be a minimum of a three-week period between the assessment centre and the medical stage. This gives you time to obtain a medical declaration from your GP and a signed opticians form. These are important, as our Occupational Health team will need them to decide if you’re able to go through the assessments.

If you successfully pass our assessments, we’ll be in touch to make you a conditional offer. Once you’ve accepted, we’ll contact your current employer for references and begin the security vetting (more information on this can be found in our hints and tips section below).

As we carry out reference checks for the last three years of your employment, it can be a lengthy process. To help speed things up, we’ll ask you to provide all of the necessary information we need. If appropriate, we’ll also carry out military and police service checks, which can take up to three months to complete. If all of your references pass our checks, you’ll then need to have your fingerprints taken during your first week at the Corporate Learning and Development Department. These are used purely for crime scene elimination purposes.

Now it’s time to start your initial 17-week training. This will be a residential course delivered by our Corporate Learning and Development Team (CLD) based in Oxfordshire, and our Firearms Training Unit (FTU) based in Surrey. We’ll cover all of your accommodation and meal costs, as well as some travel expenses.