Anyone work in a civilian role for the police?

[OutWalkin]

And if so, would you recommend it? Anything I should know before I decide whether to take a job or not?

Civilian roles are extremely varied, which bit are you looking at? I have worked in Property Services for a police force, which would be a very different experience to Contact Management (999 call handling) or CSI technician, both of which are also civilian roles.

I loved it - varied work, but the internal politics could get a bit insane at times...

I’d be in my area of expertise, in telecommunications.

One thing I’m curious about is how the attested colleagues feel about civilians.

I do. I really enjoy it. I've not got any interaction with the public, its blended working, which is great. Pension is great, holiday allowance is great. My job isn't a specialist role.

Police officers are a tight bunch. They’ll be matey with you (too matey sometimes, that’s another story) but there is definitely an ‘us and them’ with the majority of the officers.

Lots of politics as @NothingIsWrong said, and I see a lot of nepotism. I haven’t worked in one, but control rooms seem to be quite toxic places with soooo much drama, bitchiness and bullying. I work on the HR side of things and see various cases come thru etc.

I think the "us and them" isn't helped by the fact that staff get much better conditions than officers - maternity, leave, shift allowance etc.

@JorisBonson eh? Officers generally earn more and get the same paternity/maternity. Police officers wage includes their shift allowance, even if they get a 9-5/Mon-Fri role

Not where I work - maternity for example, officer get 6 months, staff get a year. About 5/6 days more annual per year depending on length of service. We get unsocial hours rather than shift allowance (pence).

Realise I've totally skated over OP's original question - I work very closely with some excellent police staff and couldn't do my job without them. So go for it :)

I started on 28 days annual leave, 4 years ago. It will go up to 35 next year. OH, police officer, has been here for 19 years and is on 29,having started on 22, I think.
But yes, most other perks are better, although I thought maternity was better for staff

I never had a problem with the officers - they were generally helpful and nice - however, I was in a position where they were relying on me to provide new offices, refurbish their existing ones, move their teams around etc, so it was in their interests to be helpful!

Police staff conditions are the same across the board @JorisBonson. If they takes year Mat Leave, it’s 6 months police pay, 6 months statutory mat pay from government, many police officers take this too. This is all negotiated at a national level by the Police Staff council. AL is calculated on years’ service, and starts off considerably lower than officers. The shift thing goes to mostly low grade police staff who are on way less than police officers (apart from the very new ones) and as I said, police officer pay doesn’t drop if they do a 9-5 type job.

the Police Staff council are currently negotiating to obtain an equal pay offer for police staff after the government gave all police officers a £1000 pay rise, but ignored police staff.

I think the them and us comes from misinformation and also the fact that police officers are at the sharp end together, and have that camaraderie, much like the armed forces.

I think this highlights the differences across forces!

"Us and them" isn't my experience, good staff are good staff, regardless of warranted powers although I have previously experienced officers trying to "pull rank" over civilian staff without realising they are actually more senior.

That annual leave allowance is good! Took me years in my last job to get up to 30 days.

They’ll be matey with you (too matey sometimes, that’s another story) This stuck out to me actually. I've found one of the senior officers a bit, er, over familiar. Not in a creepy way, just in a way that made me notice. He kind of jostled me with his arm and cracked a couple of jokes. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well. I guess I'm not used to being treated that familiarly at work. (Telecomm workers tend to be male and not very outgoing).

Sexual misconduct is a huge buzzword in the police right now. Simply put, there’s a lot of cops can’t keep it in their pants. Quite spectacularly sometimes.

Funnily enough in my constabulary it's the control room (all civilianised) where all the gossip/affairs/things of that nature comes from, rather then the officers...

Might vary depending on constabulary. Here, the civilians get a flat 20% shift pay added to their salary, if they work shifts. The officers get 10% that has to be specifically claimed based on what shifts past a certain time they have done.

yes I had this - I'm the one controlling the £15M refurbishment budget, I'm not going to be instructed like a PC at the bottom of the hierarchy.

@Quickchangeover funnily enough, it’s quite often Control Room WITH police officers 😂😂😂 Lots of other stuff too though.