How to Be a Police Officer by Graham Wettone

Author:Graham Wettone [Graham Wettone]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785902857
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2017-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

I WANT TO DRIVE POLICE CARS

A very popular question on any course I have been involved with is always about when the recruits can start driving with blue lights on. The majority of people, it would appear, want to drive a police car with the sirens on and lights flashing and swerve in and out of traffic. It is an added bonus when you are doing this if you have a getaway car in front of you in a scene reminiscent of so many Hollywood films. The prevalence of the iconic car chase seems to have been a mainstay of so many films in recent years. I am not sure what the attraction is for many of us to be able to speed through the streets with lights flashing and sirens wailing like some latter-day knight in shining armour racing to the rescue of someone. For me, as I’ve mentioned before, the TV series The Sweeney was a key part of wanting to be a police officer. Most episodes involved a scene with their unmarked cars racing to the scene of a crime or chasing bank robbers or the like, ending in a spectacular car crash.

The bloke driving the car in The Sweeney was my role model. Sitting quietly in the background but always being ready to speed through the streets with effortless skill and calm ability. I fancied some of that and had decided by the time I joined in September 1979 that I wanted to drive police cars and, more importantly, I wanted to be an advanced driver. It is important at this point to recognise that not every police force has the same application process, waiting time or criteria for those wanting to become a police driver. I cannot tell you exactly how to apply to be a police driver as the procedure differs greatly from force to force, but I will take you through the general process and describe my own experience. What is a consistent fact is that the police service has different categories or grades of drivers, although each force might have different names or titles depending on where you are a serving officer. I can speak from experience about London and the Metropolitan Police as I was a Class 1 advanced driver and driving assessor when I was a police officer. The Met and many other forces essentially have three categories of driver and, in order of sequence, they are basic, standard/response and advanced. Regardless of how long you have held a driving licence, you will need to undergo some assessment first. As far as I have found, there are no police forces that will teach you to drive from the beginning, so you must have passed the normal driving test before you can even think of applying to become a police driver.

As ever, we may as well start at the beginning. Every police officer will have to pass a check test or driving assessment to become a basic police driver. I

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