National Policing Roles

I am responsible for managing significant projects of change within the national environment and for developing a new benefits management approach for NPCC which will involve working in collaboration with other teams and committee coordinators to plan and deliver its implementation.

I enjoy most working in collaboration with teams and committee coordinators across the NPCC Hub which offers a constant opportunity to learn and develop my knowledge and skills.

I worked as an executive assistant in a force executive team for 12 years where I was able to expand my knowledge of policing and develop some transferable skills. In 2019 I secured my first secondment to a national programme and became interested in moving into project management. This led to another role in force and a further secondment where I was able to work on a variety of projects whilst studying at home to gain APM and PRINCE2 qualifications. In 2022 I joined the NPCC Strategic Hub as a project manager in the Organisational Development and Change team.

Since joining the NPCC Strategic Hub, I'm most proud of developing the NPCC Leads Directory Power App and the NPCC Benefits Management Framework.

Whilst working in force, I'm most proud of the part I played in planning and delivering the NPCC National Intelligence Conference over a period of six years.

As the Business Planning and Risk Officer within the NPCC Strategic Hub, I support the Strategic Planning and Risk Manager in the delivery, management and development of the risk framework across the organisation – directing various business functions (teams, projects, programmes and organisations) in the identification, reporting and escalation of risk, enabling consistent methodologies with a focus on control and mitigation.

The NPCC continues to mature its risk approach across operational, business and strategic/corporate risk areas, standardising central risk documentation and reporting, aligned to the NPCC Strategy and priorities, and supporting strategic direction, business planning cycles and decision-making processes.

My work provides a comprehensive overview of prioritised risks to be considered by senior leadership, at Chief Constables’ Council, creating the opportunity for well informed, proportionate and coordinated responses.

The other element of my role is support and delivery of business and strategic planning, progress tracking and reporting. I provide support across the organisation to articulate and collate business and programme plans across a complex organisation, ensuring delivery is aligned to the strategic objectives agreed by Chiefs Constables’ Council. This activity is essential in coordinating broad business areas to report on delivery plans, progress and blockers (and risks) across the national policing landscape, and I work to develop enhanced maturity of planning and objective setting to maximise opportunities, delivery and organisational effectiveness.

What I enjoy most about the role is overcoming the challenge of different maturity levels across the landscape and enhancing understanding and engagement with risk management across the organisation. I enjoy briefing and supporting colleagues in improving their strategic and risk awareness skills and providing CPD and time dedicated to risk identification workshops. Seeing other people ‘get it’ and that improvement of knowledge of others gives me pride.

I joined policing straight after completing university with a computer science degree. Primarily roles in change delivery for Surrey Police and Sussex Police, I worked ten years in police project delivery. This included collaborative working with other forces, partners such as the fire and rescue service, and county councils. I gained significant risk experience through being Portfolio Manager at the Digital Policing Portfolio, a multi-million portfolio formed of four programmes with 50+ national delivery projects.

One project was the inception of digital training for all front-line officers to increase their digital awareness, a second being one website for all county forces, saving millions of pounds. I joined the NPCC in August 2022, following a year’s career break, after experiencing successive national COVID-19 lockdowns while living in Australia! 

I have been involved in so many fantastic pieces of work. I’m really proud of all the connections and friendships I’ve made in policing throughout my journey to date. Seeing colleagues I connect with, train or mentor succeed is an absolute pleasure. I try and celebrate successes with colleagues as we deliver things collectively and usually reflect on my achievements when I’ve moved onto the next project.

In my role as NPCC Finance Committee Coordinator I support the Chair of the Finance Committee Chief Constable Paul Sanford in delivering national coordination of the Finance Committee six portfolios.

I coordinate the quarterly finance committee meetings that are held per year, pulling together the agenda and committee meeting pack together. I ensure the Finance Chair is briefed for meetings as appropriate.

For the committee I update the Actions Log and Delivery Plan Trackers, Risk Register as part of the NPCC governance and reporting within the required deadlines.

I review all Chief Constable Council Papers to ensure financial implications have been clearly communicated and the full cost has been included and are reviewed and approved by the Finance Committee. I provide advice and guidance to police forces Chief Finance Officers, and answer queries from wider partners including the Home Office, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, BlueLight Commercial and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, which has enabled me to build and maintain effective and open relationships with these key stakeholders.

In my role as the NPCC Hub Strategic Finance Lead I provide financial advice and support to the Head of NPCC Strategic Hub and function and programmes hosted by the NPCC. I provide financial support to various Home Office grant funding such as the NPCC Hub, Violence Against Women and Girls, Op Soteria, and the Productivity Review to name a few. I financial manage the NPCC Operating Budget on behalf of the NPCC Chair and Finance Committee Chair who have financial delegated responsibility by Chief Constables Council.

I have written and review annually the NPCC financial documentation which includes the Scheme of Devolved Financial Management, Reserve Strategy and Policy and Financial Instructions. Also I review and update the NPCC Medium-Term Financial Plan which covers three financial years during the course of the financial year and present updated MTFP at NPCC Audit and Assurance Board on an annual basis.

Every single day is different and the span of work knowing that we are having a positive impact and the engagement with key stakeholders and having colleagues within the NPCC who provide great support to me on a daily basis. I love being part of an amazing a team at the heart of supporting national policing in the UK.

Before the creation of the NPCC Hub I was a Senior Accountant at West Midlands Police. During 2017 I was offered the opportunity by the than Chief Constable of WMP Sir David Thompson chair of the NPCC Finance Committee to take up the role of committee coordinator. I was carrying out the duties of a committee coordinator in addition to my day job at WMP, from what the role and responsibilities and work load of a committee coordinator is now it would now be impossible to do both roles simultaneously.

I was also involved in providing financial support to the NPCC team writing the original business case to the Home Office and as I got to know more about what the role would entail I became more interested and was asked if I would like to join the NPCC as the Finance Committee Coordinator on a full time basis. WMP agreed to let me go on secondment and I haven’t looked back. It has been one of the best decision of my career in taking up this role.

I have been involved in a couple of pieces of work that I will mention that have had an positive impact on policing, the Spending Review submission where I supported the vice chair of the finance committee in pulling together the SR submission and which was one of the key document submitted by the NPCC into the Home Office as part of their submission into treasury, this resulted in policing receive £845m in additional funding over the current SR period.

One of my greatest achivements was when the Finance Coordination Committee ran a finance survey during 2023 in conjunction with the Home Office, where all 43 forces responded. This aided and supported our discussion with the Home Office police funding team in terms of police forces in England and Wales and their current and future financial resilience. As a result of the survey and the dialogue following, policing received additional funding for the 7 per cent pay award, as we made the case through the survey result that forces needed additional financial support to deliver this. 

For my substantive roles as a Senior Criminal Records Administrator (SCRA) at ACRO, I work within a team who have the responsibility in ensuring that that Police National Computer is updated with foreign convictions for both UK and foreign nationals ,to ensure that appropriate safeguards and assessment can be put in place to manage any individual who may pose a serious and immediate threat in the UK.

For the past two years I have been involved in a project team whose function is to assess the operational processes within International Services to ensure they are compliant with our legislative and data protection obligations.

I enjoy working closely with both ACRO senior managers and key stakeholders that are linked to ACRO in discussing and reviewing ACRO’s operational practices.

I started my SCRA role after an application and interview process. For the project work, this was as an expression of interest which I demonstrated the extensive knowledge and experience linked to our data sharing practices that I had gained having worked in international services for over eight years.

My great achievement has to be from working with the process managers to undertake a detailed review of particular processes and help to implement change, that resulted in a more efficient process while still maintaining our objective of protecting the public. I have also been involved in ensuring that any operational decision that impact our processes can be effectively documented within the business area.

I'm a Senior Manager at ACRO (Criminal Records Office). We are a national police unit hosted by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary. ACRO provides a range of services for members of the public, international law enforcement organisations and non-police agencies. We support UK and international law enforcement by processing criminal records for the purposes of public protection, safeguarding and worldwide community safety.

I'm Head of the Continuous Improvement Team (CIT) and lead a team of 12 hardworking police staff. I'm responsible for individual and team welfare and performance. Our objectives are to make best use of people, technology and process to enhance the service ACRO provides. Our work is split into three main areas: Process re-engineering, working with developers and business areas to automate manual processes and provide project support to our large-scale change programmes.

My team use their excellent people skills to engage with stakeholders and work with business areas to help those impacted by change. I work with the rest of the Senior Leadership Team to ensure CIT priorities link to our strategic objectives and to use our resource to make the most impact. I currently provide oversight to our digital transformation programme which includes a new digital experience platform which will give our customers and stakeholders new ways to engage with us as well as improving our processes.

I worked for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary for 18 years as police staff. I started in the control room then moved into intelligence and covert authorities, where I was fortunate enough to be promoted to manage the unit. I returned to a collaborated contact management (Hampshire and Thames Valley Police) where I was again promoted and led the front counter provision in both forces.

After a short stint managing our Contact Management Centre I decided to try something totally new in the civil service. I spent 18 months working in the Office for National Statistics as a Project Manager and Business Change Manager before realising I missed the world of policing. I'd applied for the ACRO Senior Manager Role several years previous but was unsuccessful. Fortunately, with the knowledge and skills I'd learned in the civil service I was able to convince the board that these skills coupled with my many years as a police staff member would make me a good candidate. The rest as they say is history - here I am!

Whilst managing the police front counters and the excellent people in those teams I was faced with the difficult position of needing to lead a restructure to enable efficiencies to be made. I was new in role (two weeks in). I set out to be as transparent and open with the team as possible and do all I could to work with the team to find outcomes that would be suitable to them whilst continuing to provide an excellent service. When the project was complete and reviewed Unison told me it was one of the best managed restructures they'd seen and that people felt engaged, listened to and supported. That was a proud moment for me.

As an Information Governance Officer, I work as part of a small team to assist and support ACRO with their responsibilities to comply with data protection legislation by delivering a multitude of processes and services to our colleagues and to wider external customers.

For example:

• Supporting the Data Protection Officer, we field internal and external queries and instructing our colleagues on how to take appropriate action when handling personal and sensitive data.
• We manage and renew a number of policy documents such as Information Sharing Agreements (ISAs) with external agencies, which assist with their statutory or regulatory duties by enabling access to UK and/or international criminal conviction information where we consider there to be a lawful basis to do so.
• We manage ACRO wide data breaches and provide training and guidance to colleagues to ensure ACRO meet requirements outlined in law and by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), to exhibit integrity as a public sector organisation and ensure public confidence. Consistent recording of incidents allows for trend analysis and can allow us to see if a process etc. needs reviewing.
• Collaborate with our audit ream, to deliver compliance auditing of ACRO processes across the business.
• Assessing the lawful basis and recording of court orders for conviction data to enable local authorities to make an informed assessment for the suitability of care and supervision of children.

My role is ever changing, and every task might differ due to the nature of working with different operational areas of the organisation, non-policing agencies or wider policing partners.

In my role and through each task I complete, I get to see a glimpse into all different aspects of the business and means that I have an opportunity to see what kind of work is done, understand the challenges and hard work that is put into making the business run. This is particularly a huge help when drafting or reviewing agreements. But also, it allows me to interact with a wide variety of my colleagues at all different levels. As someone who is not the most confident, I have found it so enjoyable to have a role that pushes me out of my comfort zone and helps to develop working relationships outside of our department ‘bubble’.

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminology and found myself in an unfulfilling job to keep me going, with too many aspirations, ideas and interests to settle on a career path. I have always aspired to work within the criminal justice field; to contribute to something wider. When I applied for the position as Information Governance Officer at ACRO, I saw an opportunity to join an organisation that marries policing across the UK and internationally, contributing to safeguarding and policing in society. Information governance was not a path I had initially considered, and I did not initially have the most in-depth understanding. However, I saw this as an opportunity to refresh and develop my skills and understanding of the law and explore the wider opportunities and mechanisms behind frontline policing.

My greatest achievement within my role as IGO would be having the opportunity join a project, as the information governance (IG) representative, to scope and potentially develop a new system to benefit information governance in our role, ACRO; in that it would meet legislative and business needs, as well as the wider business and colleagues who would utilise the system. To be chosen to lead this project for IG was a great responsibility and showed that I was meeting the expectations in my role and my colleagues and management had confidence in my ability.

As ACRO International Liaison Officer (ILO) at Europol headquarters in The Hague, I live and work in the Netherlands working to establish fast time intelligence about high-risk offenders that are residing in or have offended in the UK or Europe.

I use my knowledge of the exchange of criminal conviction data and the different legal systems in operation throughout Europe, to assist the intelligence unit at ACRO in processing and disseminating actionable intelligence to UK Police.

I also support the investigations of UK Law enforcement (as appropriate) ensuring that they meet the highest standards of data integrity, accuracy, and adherence to UK and EU legislation whilst also carrying out research into national/international offences, assisting in projects and collating findings to identify intelligence.

Finally, I liaise personally with the various countries ILOs and representatives of UK agencies to promote the activities of ACRO and form bonds in a bid to maintain and improve information sharing, in support of UK law enforcement objectives.

I enjoy building relationships with ILO's from other countries, as this allows British policing to better facilitate the exchange of intelligence in aid of crime prevention and offender management.

My greatest achievement was liaising between local UK forces and foreign partners to prevent registered high-risk offenders from being able to travel to places where we believe they are likely to re-offend. 

My role is to position the helicopter safely and efficiently in the sky, so that the crew can utilise the equipment onboard to best support police officers on the ground, in and around London.

Working as a team of at least three, we are tasked to locate suspects that would otherwise evade the law, find high risk missing people, we provide an airborne view to aid management of large public events, and can follow a vehicle, reducing risk to the public during a pursuit. We also have the capability to land and help the emergency services when required.

I thoroughly enjoy the challenges and the dynamic, unpredictable nature of the role in protecting public safety. The flying is very ‘hands on’ and is unlike any other role. The helicopters that we fly (the EC135 and EC145) are incredibly manoeuvrable, and it’s great to work together as a crew to achieve results.

The best part is the unpredictability of each day at work, where no two days are the same, and I value the satisfaction we get from ‘a job well done’ at the end of a successful flight, especially when the crew makes a positive impact to the community, be it locating or assisting a vulnerable person or successfully helping to apprehend a suspect, especially if they are actively trying to evade the police.

It is a dream job for me, something I have always aspired to do. I have been flying with the police for close to four years, with previous roles in engineering, helicopter flight instruction and aerial filming. The latter helped prepare me for the role, providing me with some crucial experience of the importance of camera positioning, and the need for clear crew communication to move the helicopter to achieve the desired outcome. Whilst I can follow a speeding car or motorbike by flying the helicopter, I must position it so the camera operator can keep tracking the subject vehicle, and the rear crew member to be able to communicate to officers on the ground for us to be of any value.

In the last few years, I have had the opportunity to be involved in the Jubilee celebrations, the commemoration of Queen Elizabeth, the coronation of the King Charles, various state visits, New Year’s Eve celebrations, and birthday flypasts, which have afforded me one of the best ‘seats in the house’. However, the best feeling of achievement is when you have made a direct contribution to helping a person in distress, to ensure they get the necessary care. Some of the most challenging, and therefore rewarding, flying occurs when tracking a motorbike or moped through the busy streets of London, coordinating with air traffic control and other airspace users, to ensure the vehicle is brought stop.

My role is to ensure the efficient and safe delivery of nationwide specialist air support by effectively supervising the functions of NPAS Logistics, Despatch, Flight Monitoring and support to critical incidents.

Everyday has different challenges, there is never a day that is the same. It is also rewarding that you are making a difference and as part of a fantastic team that are helping people in their hour of need or helping officers/crews to catch criminals.

Having been a supervisor previously in the police despatch world, the role of Flight Duty Officer was advertised as a new role for the National Police Air Service and seemed as a natural progression in my career, whilst also being interested in the aviation world, it all made sense and here I am!

I think my proudest and greatest achievement is having working for the policing world for all of my career, totalling 34 years so far! Also being a part of the team which find people who are missing, in need of help and catching the criminals!

My job is in police aviation, for NPAS. In a nutshell, it is to make sure we provide the highest levels of aircraft availability to support policing operations across England and Wales. I am responsible for planning the long-term maintenance schedules for the whole fleet, of 15 police helicopters and four police aeroplanes. I also work closely with our engineering team at AHUK to ensure that all Aircraft on Ground (AOGs) are serviced, safe and returned to flight operations as quickly as possible so that we deliver the very best service we can to policing.

I like the planning side best. It is like doing a really challenging puzzle. It’s a constantly changing feat, as aircraft require planned and ad hoc engineering. The challenge is making sure we always have adequate cover in the air to provide a reliable and efficient service for police forces. It certainly requires thinking 'outside of the box' to come up with the best plan, every day.

I have been employed by West Yorkshire Police for 20 years. When NPAS was formed, a job came up as a dispatcher. After a while in this post, NPAS decided to create a 'planning' post to manage day to day operational air support cover, as well as planned maintenance. I applied and was lucky. It's a job I've had for six years now.

I'm most proud of playing my part in making sure we provide reliable and effective air support for high profile events. Most recently this included the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Coronation of King Charles.

I was also incredibly proud to contribute to the policing of the funeral of PC Keith Palmer, who was killed in the 2017 terrorist attack in Westminster. We had two aircraft pay their respects from the air. It was incredibly moving to honour him, and his service, in this way.

I’m also really proud every time I see an NPAS aircraft airborne, knowing I’m part of a team that keeps them flying, enabling them to deliver invaluable work, protecting the public, finding vulnerable people and protecting officers on the ground.

My job is the help tell the story of the National Police Air Service. This involves talking to journalists, and television producers, on a regular basis. I also deliver internal communications, making sure all our teams, which are dotted at 15 bases across the length and breadth of England and Wales, plus our HQ in West Yorkshire, are kept up to date with what's happening within the organisation.

The best part of my job is first thing in the morning. It is the first job of my day to read our overnight operations report, which highlights some of the significant results from the last 24 hours. It never ceases to make me proud to work for NPAS when I see, every single day, the results our air crews achieve, in saving people's lives and helping keep our police officers and communities safer.

Of course, it would be impossible for them to do their job, without our ground crews.

Every day I learn something new about aviation. And I know, for sure, we are so lucky to employ the most skilled, dedicated people in aviation in the country. Their talent blows me away.

My trade is in newspaper journalism but that naturally led me into police communications. I started my police career with Humberside Police in 1997. After a break away, I realised I missed policing - the purpose, the teamwork, the pride. I was lucky that a role came up in NPAS a couple of years ago. I can honestly say it is one of the best jobs in comms. I love it.

In my career, I think my greatest achievement is being awarded Chartership with the Chartered Institute of PR (CIPR). This is in recognition of my professional standards, knowledge, capability and ethical practice.

But I am most proud of being able to say I work for the National Police Air Service.

I supervise the day to day flying within the NPAS Almondsbury base, supervision of base pilots and standing in regionally for pilot gaps to maintain service delivery. Coupled with this a national training role as a Line Training/ Checking Captain and CRM delivery. I also represent NPAS as the Chair of the UK Civil Aviation Authority Flight Crew Human Factors Advisory Panel.

What I enjoy best is the variety of work, after all, we go to most everything except fires. The wider impact we can have to make a bad day a better one. That coupled with the ability to genuinely help our communities and wider blue light team. Flying a police helicopter is genuinely a very rewarding job.

After a 24-year military career, I saw the police flying role as the next, altruistic, challenge. Firstly, with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and for the last 11 years now with the National Police Air service.

I am proud of the hopeless tasks that have been made hopeful by the helicopter arriving on scene. Not just my own but all crews in all bases. My personal highlights are the moments where we have landed on and seeing the police officers and staff on board engage with missing people, people in crisis and save lives. I was kindly awarded a Chief Constable's commendation for one such event but in the last 11 years those moments make me realise how important air support is to the public. Also how honoured I am to be able to help.

I work with NPAS managers to identify future vacancies and then run recruitment campaigns to fill them. The roles are varied; we employ police staff in roles such as pilots, flight dispatchers and Civil Aviation Authority mandated positions.

Additionally, I am responsible for arranging secondments for police officers from all forces across England and Wales who join us at one of our 15 NPAS bases as Tactical Flight Officers. I advertise the roles and then carry out the necessary pre-employment checks and issues contracts of employment to the successful candidates. I work closely with the Training Department to ensure recruitment and selection is carried out in time to populate our Tactical Flight Officer and Pilot courses. It’s a hugely varied and interesting role.

I love the difference I make to my colleagues within NPAS by providing efficient and streamlined recruitment processes ensuring that they are supported throughout and kept informed at all times. To be given the opportunity to be the sole recruiter for NPAS within such an aviation focussed environment has been a complete delight. To see the results of the fantastic work that every person within NPAS contributes to, is rewarding in itself. As a group of people to work with, they really are all amazing.

Having worked for the Ministry of Defence, specifically the RAF, for 27 years in personnel management and recruitment followed by a few years with NATO, I found myself living in West Yorkshire and was employed by West Yorkshire Police in the resourcing department where I carried out recruitment and onboarding for all roles within the force, including the NPAS portfolio. A role was advertised with NPAS in the Operations and Admin Support office, and I was successful for the role. It just felt like coming home. As a result of my previous resourcing role, NPAS brought recruitment ‘in-house’ and I took over the responsibility for this. I have never looked back and can honestly say that I enjoy every day at work.

I am most proud of the work involved in bringing 'in-house' the recruitment function to this organisation and of providing a bespoke and dedicated recruitment and onboarding service to NPAS.

I work as part of a national liaison team with geographic responsibility for three regions: the West Midlands, Tarian, and the Southwest.

The role provides a link between NABIS and forces/agencies of the UK. I'm an operational point of contact for investigations, help develop processes, problem solve and share best practice. The strategic aim is to ensure compliance with the Memorandum of Understanding between NABIS and police forces regarding the registration and submission of firearms, ammunition and other ballistic material.

Firearms criminality is so interesting and varied as it involves their use and supply, both domestic and internationally. The threat is wide ranging from guns manufactured as original lethal purpose to converted and hybrid 3D firearms.

My role enables me to work with a wide range of professionals; researchers, analysts, ballistic experts and forensic teams to name just some of them.

Working collaboratively to tackle policing issues is very rewarding such as being able to detect offences, contribute to reducing the number of discharges and increasing the number of gun recoveries.

NABIS forensic staff use technology to infer what firearms may have been used and to make ballistic comparisons between items.

To get the best from the NABIS database I work with forces to register and submit items for examination. There is a performance side to the role which has been really interesting to understand what can influence the data and then go on to help make recommendations for more efficient processes.

I left Staffordshire Police in 2018 as a police officer and performed roles in intelligence led policing, both overt and covert.

I wanted to continue in a law enforcement role and when I saw the role advertised with NABIS that incorporated intelligence and forensics, I decided that that this interested me the most. I have been here now for five years. and there is still so much to learn.

My greatest achievement has been my collaboration with Dr Rachel Bolton-King and Staffordshire University regarding three projects:

1. Evidence submission workflows; enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.
2. Firearms related evidence awareness and training,
3. Evaluating Level Two training

Together with Dr Rachel Bolton-King I had the opportunity to present these findings at a Forensic Capability Network research conference.