3. Training

Throughout your police career, you'll receive on-going training, development, support and guidance to ensure you are fully equipped to do your job safely and confidently.

All student officers in Gloucestershire Constabulary begin their careers doing front line police work. After the successful completion of the probation period, the opportunities for career progression and diversification are vast.

Through comprehensive training you will learn to:

• protect the public from violence
• provide a reassuring presence in the community
• support victims of crime and offer help to those who have witnessed crimes
• investigate complex crimes using a mixture of cutting-edge technology and time-proven traditional methods

Police officer ranks

You will join as a police constable and will be eligible to apply to progress through the following ranks once you’ve successfully completed your probation:

Police constable

This is the starting rank for police officers

Sergeant

The first supervisory rank. Most sergeants are responsible for a team of constables.

Inspector

Uniformed inspectors typically oversee a shift of constables and sergeants. They also take charge of major incidents in their force area.

Chief inspector

This role can vary from force to force, but a chief inspector often acts as the senior police officer in larger towns. They oversee large teams such as Investigations or Operations.

Superintendent

At this senior management rank, a superintendent would usually be in charge of a section of a Command.

Chief superintendent

The chief superintendent is typically responsible for policing of a geographical area of their force.

Assistant chief constable

As chief officers, assistant chief constables (ACCs) are mainly responsible for a specific function or business area within their police force, for example, Investigation or Operations.

Debuty chief constable

Deputy chief constables (DCCs) act as a deputy for their chief constable, handling the running of the force and supporting the chief constable.

Chief constable

Chief constables (CCs) are responsible for the effective running of their force.

Specialist units and roles

Once you’ve successfully completed your probation period, you can also apply to work in a huge variety of roles and specialist units, including:

Community policing

This covers roles like neighbourhood policing, rural crime and school beat officers.

Investigation

Roles include detectives investigating crimes ranging from serious and organised crime, fraud, child abuse, domestic abuse and counter terrorism offences.

Intelligence

Roles include analysts, digital investigations, covert operatives and intelligence development officers investigators.

Operational support

This includes specialist roles like dog handler or mounted police, firearms officer and road policing, public order and search officers.