Police / Police Scotland step up campaign to recruit more local people
A STARTING salary of £31,000, the opportunity to train entirely in Shetland and the chance to serve and protect the community.
Police Scotland’s head of recruitment Alan Mulholland believes policing is a hugely attractive role for young Shetlanders, and he wants them to give serious thought to considering it as a career path.
A drop-in event is set to be held at the Clickimin on Sunday 15 June, with Police Scotland targeting people in the isles first and foremost to join the force.
Recruiting Shetlanders to lead the police here is “the way forward”, Mulholland says.
Head of recruitment at Police Scotland Alan Mulholland and Shetland area inspector Sam Greshon outside Lerwick police station on Wednesday.
Photo: Shetland News
And both he and area inspector Sam Greshon believe policing can be an attractive draw for young people looking to find their career. Mulholland was speaking to Shetland News during a flying visit to the isles earlier this week, where he also led a meeting with local organisations about how Police Scotland could recruit more Shetlanders.
The recruitment chief said that while policing “sometimes comes with stigma”, they wanted to “really promote the positive image of policing”.
“We want police officers that are shining a light on Police Scotland,” he said.
“We’re quite confident that we’ve got good people here that are embedded in the community.
“They do work that makes them a credit to the organisation.”
Officers training in Shetland previously had to travel to the mainland to carry out assessments, including medicals.
However NHS Shetland are now set to conduct medicals on behalf of Police Scotland, which Mulholland described as “quite exciting”.
“Now people can train from start to finish in their island,” he said.
Greshon added she felt this would have a “big impact” on encouraging more people to giving policing a go in Shetland.
“It’s really important that we have that local knowledge,” she said.
“It’s about how we appeal to the young people of Shetland. We’re looking at how we can target them.”
Greshon admitted the police “really need to try compete against” the private sector, which was tricky for a public service.
One current officer is aged just 18, and Greshon said they wanted to add more young blood.
Mulholland said the starting salary for an 18-year-old – or any new recruit – was £31,466 for year one, which he said was a competitive rate of salary.
That would increase to £37,000 after they had successfully completed their probation, he said.
However Mulholland said the important thing was that anyone applying for the police had carefully considered the job first.
“It’s a tough job, so that’s really important,” he said.
“It needs to be the right people out policing the streets.
“The most important things is readiness – if you’re coming for an assessment you’ve got to have thought about it, the dangers involved in being a police officer.”
Of the training involved in becoming a police officer, Mulholland said “the bar is the bar” – and they will “never lower the bar”.
Instead they would offer people “the learning to come back more prepared” if they wanted to apply again.
He admitted it was a “dangerous, difficult job”, and that anyone interested should be looking to come along to events like their Clickimin fair to speak to other officers before applying.
“The very nature of the job is dangerous, we can’t get away from that,” Mulholland said.
“I have had teeth knocked out. Our officers do get assaulted, and their families have to support them.
“They’re at their jobs at Christmas Day, New Year’s Day. It’s a three shift system that they’re coming into, and that’s not for everyone.”
Greshon said there was a “realisation for some” that the job was a “big commitment”.
“They’re missing out on family events, or a public holiday they would ordinarily be off for,” she added.
Mulholland said that it “would be wrong for us to take someone from Inverness and put them into Shetland because it’s needed”.
“It’s wrong for us to take someone and make them move with their families if we have people that are suitable in the area.
“We tend to try not to do that. We have done it, but we prefer localised recruitment – it’s about getting people that know the place and want to work there.”
Police Scotland hold recruitment exercises in Shetland every two months, and Mulholland said they want a “healthy pipeline” of people ready to fill posts.
“We might not have a job for you now, but we can keep you in the pipeline and keep you updated,” he added.
“Also if you’re in Shetland you might say, ‘I want to work in Inverness, Wick, Aberdeen or Glasgow’.”
Previously there have been concerns about a lack of police housing in Shetland, and the quality of homes that were being offered.
However Greshon said she was “really confident with where we are with housing” after Police Scotland spent millions of pounds on refurbishing and buying available property.
“We have a brand new refurbished house in the yard which can occupy five single officers,” she said.
“We also have two refurbished houses we’re in the process of buying, and we’ve bought one new home “
The uptick in property has been fantastic.”
And Mulholland added that if they can get their recruitment right, hopefully new officers “won’t require accommodation” anyway.
The police officer recruitment drop-in event is being held on Sunday 15 June between 10am and 3pm at the Clickimin.
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