Police Enquiry Officers
When someone needs a reassuring face to put them at ease, Police Enquiry Officers are there to help. Our Front Counter teams are the first face to face contact when visiting police stations and are there ready to deal with anything that walks through the door. This can range from taking a report of a missing person, supporting someone during a mental health crisis, or helping a victim of domestic abuse. Police Enquiry Officers play a vital role in keeping our communities safe, protecting the most vulnerable and preventing harm.
As you will be providing face to face assistance to members of the public, you’ll be a comforting presence in people’s hour of need. Asking the right questions, listening for vital details and recording information will all be a part of your day-to-day role.
If you’re ready to leave the boring 9 to 5 behind, the role of Police Enquiry Officer could be just what you’re looking for. You will deal with urgent incidents that require police attendance, reports of crime that need recording, and a multitude of queries that need resolving or advising. In return, we promise you a good starting salary, great training experiences, opportunities for progression and the pride that comes from helping others.
A typical shift looks like this:
During the day you’ll deal with a mixture of queries, reports, requests and visitors. Demand varies by the time of day and day of the week. Factors such as weather, traffic accidents, national or local events can all have an influence on the number of people who attend the front counter. With the training we provide you’ll be empowered to risk assess and prioritise each incident, ensuring an appropriate response. With each interaction you’ll need to be able to remain calm and in control even in situations where the visitor could be angry and/or upset, gathering as much information as possible by asking the right questions. The information you gather will need to be recorded accurately into our systems and transferred to those responding.
- Initial investigation – when a crime is reported you'll be trained to ask initial questions to establish the risk/severity and whether there are lines of enquiry, including forensic opportunities. If the matter cannot be progressed on the information available, you'll be using our system to record details of the report. With each contact we manage the expectations of the reporting person, providing crime reduction advice and re-assurance.
- Advice – many people who attend Front Counter come in with questions that can be resolved there and then. This could be through offering advice or signposting members of public to more appropriate agencies when it is not a matter dealt with by Police. With each contact you’ll be managing expectations and advising what police can and cannot do.
- Recording intelligence –from information given to us by our communities you’ll be identifying and recording information to share with other parts of the organisation to inform our future policing operations.
- Dealing with online reports – our Front Counter team also deal with reports and queries that come through via our website, in order to assist our Contact Centre colleagues, and to get people the answers they are looking for as quickly as possible.
- Answering phone calls – you will also help members of public over the phone with a variety of queries. This could include advising when their seized property can be returned, letting them know what they need to do in order to get their impounded vehicle released, or having a look to see if we have had their lost wallet handed in.
- Making sure we deliver an excellent service by being focused and alert to deal with whatever comes through the doors and dealing with every incident to a professional standard.
Please note that Police Enquiry Officers are based at Guildford, Reigate, Woking, Esher, Staines and Epsom. It is a mobile contract role, meaning you will have a base station, but will be required to work across all stations when needed and sometimes at short notice.
Are you interested in the role? If so, you can register your expression of interest here.
If you have any questions, please email [email protected]
To apply for the role you will need to meet our eligibility criteria:
- Aged 18 years or over (on the day you submit your application).
- Have lived in the UK for three continuous years, immediately prior to application.
- Have leave to enter or leave to remain and work in the UK for an indefinite period.
- Not be a current or previous member of a proscribed terrorist organisation or group.
- Ability to commit to a shift pattern which covers a 24/7 period, weekends and Bank Holidays.
When you join Surrey Police, you can expect a career with variety, diversity, challenges, rewards and great learning experiences. This is a vital role which matters to the public, but it also matters to us. As such, we will give you:
- A starting salary of £25,202 if based at one of our main sites (Guildford, Reigate or Staines), rising annually. This is inclusive of a shift allowance of £1,301 per year.
- 180 hours per year annual leave, rising to 209 hours depending on your length of service.
- Great development experiences that will support future career opportunities and progression.
- A competitive benefits package including pension, flexible benefits, employee assistance programme for advice and counselling, access to discounts / savings / cash-back rewards and the opportunity to purchase additional annual leave.
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Progressive approach to flexible working, enhanced maternity and paternity leave and potential for a career break (after two years’ service).
- Opportunities to join various support networks, staff associations and sports clubs.
Read more about what you can expect from us as an employer.
The initial training course is seven weeks classroom-based training. During this time students undertake a number of IT courses, receive a range of inputs including Law and Public Protection. You will then join your designated front counter working the shift pattern with the guidance of an experienced coach until you are ready to work independently.
Starting your career in our Police Counters will provide you with a wide range of skills and experiences. There are also opportunities for development, such as becoming a coach, or additional training on certain topics enabling you to act as a point of contact to other team members.
Stage one: Quick Apply
There’ll be a short form to complete with your personal details and check boxes to ensure all eligibility criteria have been met. Along with this you’ll be asked to upload a copy of your CV to include employment history and education.
Stage two: Online Assessment
We will send you an online assessment to complete which will measure your communication skills and typing speed. Due to the time critical nature of the role we look for a minimum of 30 WPM (Words Per Minute.) There are many free online typing tests that will allow you to gain practice or gain an indication of your current speed. These tests are sent to you via email and once it is completed you will be able to return it to us for review.
Stage three: Online force interview
On successful completion of the exercise we will invite you to an interview conducted by a panel of Surrey Police representatives. These are currently being conducted online via Zoom. This interview will be based upon the Competency and Values Framework (CFV).
Stage four: Pre-employment checks
These consist of a medical questionnaire and vetting checks.
- Medical questionnaire - you will be required to complete a questionnaire with your medical history which will be assessed by our Occupational Health team.
- Vetting - this will assess you and your families’ criminal record, financial status and business interests.
Our ability to build trust, understand problems and support our communities across a range of policing matters, relies on us having a workforce that is reflective of our communities and all the unique individuals that exist within them. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity within our workforce and to eliminating discrimination.
We are very keen to encourage applications from those that have never considered policing as a career. Representation within our workforce from black and minority ethnic communities is currently much lower than we want it to be; by improving this we will be better able to serve our local communities and our work place will benefit from all the differences in thinking, points of view, and approaches that diversity brings.
We are actively working on a range of activities to improve this and one of the proactive ways we are seeking to increase representation is via a bespoke mentoring scheme which is aimed at guiding applicants from diverse communities through the recruitment process.
For more information email [email protected]