In a new feature, two of our new recruits will be publishing a weekly blog about their experiences in police training school.  Follow their progress and find out what it’s like to join Cambridgeshire Constabulary in 2015…

Hello and welcome to week three of our blog! This week was the start of us doing role plays, implementing what we had learnt into the classrooms and putting it into a practical situation.

Doug-

Monday- Monday started with a presentation by a Custody Sergeant, explaining what his role in the organisation is making sure we arrest we make is Proportionate, Legal, Accountable and Necessary. The rest of the day was spent doing role plays! We each had 2 role plays to complete, couple of pointers where I went wrong but otherwise good!

Tuesday- Tuesday morning began with an introduction to writing police statement, making sure we write them in the correct format and remember they have to be as detailed as possible! The afternoon covered our powers to enter properties in certain circumstances.

Wednesday- Wednesday was a very intense learning day! Starting off with learning about weapons and possession of unlawful weapons, then looking at the offence of ‘going equipped’. Finished off with presenting about the powers which members of school staff have to deal with students.

Thursday- Another very intense day! The morning was completely taken up by learning about Robbery, with the afternoon taken up by learning about Burglary and aggravated burglary. Very long day and I felt absolutely drained after it.

Friday- Today was also about roleplaying. This time we would be building on our first arrest by coupling that with a power of searching a premises. For example searching a car where we believe a weapon is located. Also today I made the big mistake of messing up everyone’s tea and coffee orders! I won’t be doing that again…

Jess –

This week was a big week for role plays – arresting and powers of entry!

Monday was the first time we were able to out our learning into practice and have a go at some role plays. We were able to work in pairs, and conduct an arrest for either theft from a shop or criminal damage. I had a couple of bits of improve on, but all good learning points.

The next three days were very tough learning days. Full on power points and knowledge checks about statements, offensive weapons, robbery and burglary. We could practice our statement writing by writing up our role plays from Monday. Our class had a little trouble getting our head around robbery and burglary, but after lots of questions, and scenarios, we’d cracked it!

Friday was another day of role plays – building on what we had learnt on Monday, but adding in powers of entry and seizure. This was a little more complicated, but we did well. They were a little trickier as the role players were not being as compliant, but all good fun!

Now for a tough weekend of revision for our first exam on Tuesday…