The Met is temporarily extending the opportunity to “Do Something Real” to non-Londoners as part of its drive to recruit more than 2,500 officers to bring total officer strength up to 30,700.
Since August 2014 the Met has had residency criteria for all external candidates applying to become a constable, requiring them to have lived in London for a minimum of three out of the last six years. This requirement was introduced in recognition that having a connection with, and local knowledge of, London and its communities is beneficial and that this should be valued when selecting new police officers. It has also enabled us to become more representative of London by significantly improving the number of officers that we recruit from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds
These are principles that are still really important. However, the Met finds itself in a period of significant growth in a very buoyant London employment market. It is seeking to recruit more than double the number of officers who joined last year. We know that we can recruit sufficient numbers of new officers in London to meet our normal turnover of around 1800 officers a year. However, to get enough applications to achieve the growth in a timely way the London residency criteria will be temporarily removed for the next six months.
This provides a real opportunity for those living outside of London to fulfil their ambition of working for the Met and starting a police career that is completely unique and different to any other force. This time limited opportunity will run in parallel to the existing drive to encourage more Londoners to join.
Commissioner Cressida Dick said: “If you are a Londoner we absolutely still value your local knowledge and we continue to want to attract individuals who reflect the best of London. However, we of course recognise that there are people who are passionate about serving, protecting and working with London’s diverse communities who may live outside of our city so during this period of growth this is a really exciting opportunity to come and join us.”
City Hall has invested an additional £140m to support an extra 1,000 police officer posts.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Both the Commissioner and I are firmly committed to ensuring the Metropolitan Police is fully reflective of the diversity that we celebrate in London. But it’s no secret that our population has increased, while London faces huge policing challenges from a changing terror threat to tackling violent crime. It means we need to significantly boost the number of officers we recruit to police the capital.
“Our police service is the best in the world and I am fully supportive of this opportunity for people living outside London to police the best city in the world and contribute to making our capital safer for all Londoners.”
The Commissioner recently launched the “Do Something Real” campaign as the start of this recruitment drive, which included two main policy changes: improvements to the package for candidates so they can avoid upfront payments for their initial qualification and get paid to study for it; and a partial relaxation to its policy on visible tattoos.
In addition, the Met is also keeping its Detective Pathway and Special Constable schemes running during the course of the year to offer people a range of ways to join the Met and help make a difference to their communities.
As a new Police Constable in the Met the starting salary is £27,105 per annum inclusive of additional allowances. After successful completion of initial training and the associated qualification (usually within three months of joining), this automatically increases to £30,321 per annum. The salary increases to a current maximum of £45,885 inclusive of London allowances, achievable after seven years’ service. There is also free travel on TFL services and access to a subsidised travel scheme for up to 35 miles outside of London.
To view the campaign video “Do Something Real” please visit: https://youtu.be/FuNa4bkzDyM
To find out more about joining the Met, please visit: http://www.metpolicecareers.co.uk/newconstable/
