So, what sort of aspects are covered under PACE? The first fundamental is the power of arrest that can be exercised by any police officer. This statute dictates exactly how the officer should carry out the arrest: including ensuring the person being arrested is fully aware of the reason why this is happening and the officer must also set out the full caution and their applicable rights and make sure that this is understood fully.

There are full regulations provided for under PACE that set out, in a stage-by-stage manner, exactly how the person that has been arrested should be treated. One of the most important rights to be informed to the arrestee is the fact that they are entitled to the services of a solicitor. If they are unable to afford such legal assistance, by law this will be provided for them free of charge.

The main role of the solicitor should be for them to ensure that their client has been treated 100% in accordance with the law. If they discover that any aspect of the arrest and/or detention has not been undertaken lawfully, this is grounds for action to be taken against the police and for any charges to be dropped.

PACE dictates the exact length of time that a person can be detained before a higher-ranking police officer would need to become involved or permission to detain for a longer period is sought from the local Magistrates’ court.

After a person has been arrested, they will be brought before the custody sergeant and it is at this time that they should be furnished with the full details of the regulations that are set out in PACE. This will inform the individual of all of their rights and notifies them of the total length of time that they can be detained, meal and refreshment breaks and sleeping arrangements.

If you were keen to find out more about the work involved as a police officer and exactly what is expected from the role, it would always be a very good idea for you to research the provisions of PACE beforehand. If you were able to relate back to this Act of Parliament in any initial interview for the police force, this would always be very much in your favour and it would prove how you have taken the initiative to do your research.

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) is a further Act of Parliament that sets out the way in which police officers should behave, however, PACE remains the main law in this area.

There are specific breeds of dogs that are designed to work in ways that could help solve crimes and catch criminals. However, they must undergo a series of trainings first. Dog handlers have to take training courses by themselves and with their canines. First, to become a dog handler, you must complete your 2-year probationary period and must have proved yourself to be a competent police officer. You can then apply to the dog unit for a trial course with a police dog that is trained to accept commands from any handler.

Dog handler trainees are taught to handle certain breeds of dogs such as Labradors, Retrievers, German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Dobermans. All of these canines belong to the guard dogs category where their genetics are fit to handle critical matters. Basically, what a police canine does is

• Narcotics (drug) detection

Sniffer dogs have helped to safeguard ports and airports for many years. With recent increases in terrorist activities, the demand for sniffer dogs has increased especially when it comes to detecting illegal drugs. A police canine can easily detect Cannabis – resin & herbal drugs, Heroin, Cocaine, Amphetamine and Ecstasy.

• Explosives detection

Aside from drugs, sniffer dogs can also detect explosives of any form. Police dogs and their handlers are usually hired in huge corporations, malls, airports and seaports for extra security inside and outside the building. Canines, with the help of their dog handlers can sense people with hidden firearms, ammunitions and even banned food products.

• Patrol and guarding work

Police dogs are also very good at patrolling missions. These trained animals have very sharp senses on smelling and hearing that they can identify an outsider even miles away. A trained dog will aid in the defence of the officer should he be under attack. This gives officers more confidence to carry out their duties in vulnerable areas. Plus, intruders will be less likely to attack when there’s a pack of dogs who can defend its handlers.

• Search and rescue tasks

A well-trained canine can search for missing persons even though they haven’t met that specific person yet. Dog handlers are the ones responsible for helping their dogs in search operations by making contacts with the people involve on who the person really is. Usually, a dog can search for a missing person by sniffing that person’s belongings such as clothes, shoes etc.

CO19 Police Firearms Unit

Also known as London’s SWAT unit, this is MET’s specialist firearms unit for highly skilled policemen and women. A regular police officer in the UK isn’t allowed to carry firearms in public unless they belong to the Firearms Unit. They are capable of using a wide variety of lethal and non-lethal weapons, including sub machine guns and tazers. Officers in this unit are called for whenever there are gun crimes and terrorism in the capital. The Police Firearms Unit is divided into two: the Specialist Firearms Unit (SFO) and Armed Response Vehicle (ARV).

SO14 Royalty Protection Branch

This unit is composed of armed bodyguards for the Royal Family. The Royal Family is the most important people in all of United Kingdom. They need to be protected 24/7 with highly trained professionals that can ensure the most advance and effective performance at all times. SO14 is divided into branches: Royalty Protection Squad, Special Escort Group and Diplomatic Protection Group.

SO15 Counter Terrorism Command

This unit is entitled to protect the country’s political and national matters in terms of threat and subversion. Recently it has merged with SO13 Anti-Terrorist Branch and became SO15. This unit’s main responsibilities are to bring to justice to those engaged in terrorism, domestic extremism and related offences and to provide a proactive and reactive response to terrorism, domestic extremism and related offences, including the prevention and disruption of such activity. All in all, SO15 aims to provide all of UK the safety and protection of not being invaded by terror attacks in any other way.

SO18 Aviation Security

Aside from having the dedicated and noble services of the Royal Air Force, the UK Police also has a unit on aviation security. The unit is responsible for providing law enforcement and security for both Heathrow and London City airports. This unit is also involved in some of the missions in SO15 whereas they are the ones responsible for anything that involves aviation and UK’s aerial premises.

Civil Nuclear Constabulary

In charge of guarding UK’s nuclear sites, the CNC is responsible in monitoring and securing power stations, processing and storage plants as well as the shipments of nuclear materials. CNC officers are highly trained as shipments usually involve external trades that may cause as the way to let terrorism enter in the country. Usually they are heavily armed and often come into missions in groups in order to secure search and investigative operations.

Special constables hold special missions in their respective territorial forces. They aren’t regular members of the force however on specific occasions, their skills are needed and called attention for. Some of these tasks may involve explosive disposal technicians, court security, campus security or executive protection for diplomats. Special Constables hold full police powers and hold the office of the Constable. Some of them are paid employees and some can volunteer for sixteen hours a week whereupon all of them must take special courses and trainings in order to be qualified.

There are quite a number of voluntary/paid Special Constable Trainees nowadays since aside from the experience, rendering your services to those who are in need gives a rewarding feeling in the end. Once you’re qualified from your initial application, your training starts as soon as possible. Your 23 days’ worth of training includes the basics which are the various aspects of police work, including basic law, police procedures, officer safety, people skills and emergency life saving techniques. You have the choice of taking the courses during weekends if you have other jobs to do during the week or you can take the intensive five days a week that is only going to last less than a month.

Aside from the said courses, the UK Police training for Special Constables will also teach you how to achieve effective decision making, self-motivation, communication, leadership, integrity and more. To maximise your training time, you will be required to study course materials outside your training schedule. This course is a pass-fail method where your training officers will evaluate your overall performance base on three factors: knowledge examinations, practical assessment and written examinations.

Once you passed that certain course, you will be an attested officer where you will receive your warrant card. Your first duty of sixty hours will be on “coach patrols” where you will be working with regular officers. And when you’ve exceeded sixty hours, your local constabularies will let you decide on taking further trainings for a broader capability in providing policing services.

Though most special constables aren’t paid, they still get benefits. Some of these benefits are free travel on the London Underground, London Buses, Tramlink, Transport for London (TfL) operated Overground services and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). Most people nowadays are getting involved in voluntary works because aside from helping others, you can earn new friends in your police force and the community and most of all, you have that sense of achievement that makes everything simply worthwhile.

So let’s start from the very beginning: the Recruitment Process. This phase is divided into two parts where the initial recruitment is the process of resourcing potential police officers for the Police force. In this case, everything starts at the application, interview and assessment stage. For aspiring police officers, this is where you apply for a position in the force. Staff from the Human Resource Department is going to evaluate you whether you’re qualified for the first initial training by helping candidates pass the interview and assessment stages of the police recruitment process.

Once you’ve passed the first part of the recruitment course, you will be transferred to the probationer training course (part two). This is an audio learning course to help probationary constables in learning the legislation they need to know to pass the two year probationary period. The course includes guidance on PACE, Police Powers, common and statutory law including road traffic, offensive weapons, theft, public order, assaults and much more.

If you pass the recruitment process, you will be presented with a wide variation of choices for courses that would be able to accommodate specific policing skills. The standard training courses are promotion courses for whenever you’re going to apply for a higher rank. General Police courses for the simultaneous trainings every police officer must undergo and Specialist courses for advance trainings that could possibly land you larger missions on national matters. Other than these, police officers are entitled to be in a specific department where they can be trained and educated in a more focused manner.

Specific trainings involves courses on Corrections/Court Security, Crime Scene, Critical Incidents, Criminal Investigations, Drugs/Narcotics, Fire Related, Homicide, Hostage, Interview/Interrogation, Languages, Leadership/Supervision, Legal / Liability, School Related, Traffic/Vehicular and Terrorism. An officer in the UK Police may take multiple training courses depending on their recent rankings. Some of these departments/ training courses only accept police officers that have successfully passed whereas missions entail more advanced skills and proper handling.

The office for security and counter terrorism coordinates with various agencies and government department to improve the awareness, response and security during threats and possible terrorism occurrences. The crime and policing group on the other hand, which works with the local authorities, monitors policing strategies and actions as well as seeks improvements and changes for the future. In line with helping in the Home Office’s goals, the government department’s public bodies are the UK Border Agency, the Identity and Passport Service and the Criminal Records Bureau.

According to the Home Office archives, the Home Office objectives for the country as well as the territorial police forces are to:

• To reduce crime
• To ensure people feel safer in their homes and daily lives, particularly through more visible, responsive and accountable policing
• To protect the UK from terrorist attacks
• To re-balance the criminal justice system in favour of the law-abiding majority and victims
• To manage offenders in order to protect the public and reduce re-offending
• To secure the borders of the United Kingdom, prevent abuse of immigration laws and manage migration to the benefit of the UK.

The Home Office of United Kingdom began its duties to the country way back in the late 17^th hundredths where the agency’s responsibilities were to answer petitions and addresses sent to the King, advising the King on security and governance matters, operating the Secret Service in the UK and so on. Goals and objectives were subsequently changed over the years. Today, since the United Kingdom government is headed by the Prime Minister, the Home Office no longer is the primary adviser when it comes to the country’s security matters as there already are various law enforcement agencies that have designated duties for the country and its countrymen.

Aside from the mentioned objectives, the Home Office also holds documents that include the Home Office business plan, diversity strategy and resource accounts. This information are open to the public as UK respects the freedom of information whereas believing that the more people are aware of the public documents released by the police, the more they’ll be able to cooperate. The Home Office also conducts projects and campaigns where one of their funded projects is UK’s Science and Technology Strategy that brings together the department’s scientists, researchers and analysts.  Scientific police services such as biometrics, cell type analysis, chemistry, DNA, Improved profiling are studied and regulated by their hired professionals. The science and technology department continues to conduct studies and experiments that may help better policing and crime solving.

United Kingdom is a large country both in terms of land area and population and it represents a diversity of culture and geography making it a challenge for the UK Police to perform effective nation and community policing. Just recently in 2010, the government published a consultation document entitled Policing in the 21st Century: Re-connecting the police and the people which aims to envision the radical changes in policing in the next fifty years.

Governance and policing is always done in a relative matter as change is always inevitable. Policing decades ago might be effective back in the days but might be obsolete today. This is why the National Policing Improvement Agency created a series of studies and improvement priorities to guide the Police in their policing duties. Policing may be more complex that it seems. There are many important factors to consider especially in terms of financial concerns, human resource, local authorities available and so one. NPIA seeks to help these evident problems of the police. Like for example, NPIA has provided themes for improvement on the recently published consultation document, Policing in the 21^st century. It was divided into two which were entitled Cost Effectiveness and Critical National Services.

Cost Effectiveness and Critical National Services have been NPIA’s priorities. Along with these, the agency has a 2011-2013 business plan that covers mainly all the public sectors down to the private individuals residing in the UK. Cost Effectiveness mainly tackles about supporting forces in delivering savings and identifying efficiencies. The agency’s work provides direction and oversight to national and force led initiatives, helping to generate savings of over £1 billion a year by March 2015.

On the other hand, Critical National Services are specialist services that help free-up local forces to concentrate on local priorities, but offer access to expertise and support on cross-border crime when needed. This NCIA priority also offers services and consultations that lead to reduced costs, increased effectiveness and improved information sharing.

The National Policing Improvement Agency now works with United Kingdom’s Home Office, Association of Chief Police Officers and Association of Police Authorities on deciding which services are effective that should be continued and which once aren’t. NPIA is all about teaming up in order to reach a broader range of communities and local authorities. The agency is open for customer enquiries 24/7 and they also provide a list of public services contacts and information for private citizens and local authorities as well.

The NPIA concentrates more on establishing effective Neighbourhood Partnerships, Citizen Focus and Integrated Offender Management. The said campaigns are all laid out in documents that tackle about the missions and vision, strategies, key factors and solutions. NPIA also provides statistics and studies for local authorities to use in efficient governance and leadership improvement.

Instead of relying everything on public services and the government, people in a community must accomplish their own duties and roles as law-abiding private entities. Once majority of the public cooperates, a significant positive change will happen. As concerned citizens, you also have an obligation in helping out to your community. After all, it is where you and the people that matter to you live. Here’s a list of roles that you can do in order to maintain a peaceful, liveable and pleasant place.

Get Involve in Your Community

When you live in a community, you are entitled to help and make the place you’re living in better in terms of peace and orderliness. Try to be friendly with the people around you and cooperated during public events such as town fairs or charity fund raisers if you have time. This way, knowing these people might get you to know some of the common interests and concerns in regards to the community where you can share ideas of improvement and so on.

Be Observant and Concerned all the Time

Living in a local community might make your workplace, your school or your children’s school inside the area’s premises as well. It’s the usual place where locals do their activities such as shop, eat in restaurants, get their cars repaired etc. For people to be able to go out and have their day unobstructed is a right and a privilege at the same time. It’s your local police force’s job to stop crime in your area. Now it’s your job in helping them observe for some odd things and occurrences on where you live. Reporting a possible crime and anomaly within your area will help the police on stopping criminal offences better.

Expand Your Engagement within the Community

Doing regular consultations with the police isn’t enough in making the community better. As concerned citizens that are doing their best in helping out in the community, it’s difficult to keep everybody in the same phase. There has to be a leader that can offer effective governance where people will be more inspired to help out and follow. Expanding engagements throughout the area- its people, local businesses and agencies- may bring out more resources that may be a great help in pursuing projects and campaigns for the society.

Communicate with your Local Police Force and Authorities

Local police forces in United Kingdom have a campaign that is called Neighbourhood Policing or Community Policing where they team up with community officials in keeping effective governance in an area that promotes peace and order through a series of engagements and progress. As citizens and community officials moreover, keeping a constant communication with the authorities helps the police know more on how to handle and prevent crimes. Most of all, it helps them decide on what approaches of policing is appropriate in an area.

Though the UK Police isn’t part of the British Armed Forces, they have to fulfil their duties in the country. For various cities and towns to stay secured and safe, the country must be governed competently- bringing public services and armed forces to work together in order to protect the nation from terrorism and national crimes. Here is a list of duties and responsibilities that the UK Police.

Prevent and Stop all Criminal Offences

Every crime has its own verdict. Therefore, the police must be able to provide the right justice that all criminals and victims deserve. A strong nation is a nation that has a steadfast justice system and the UK Police plays a huge role in keeping the justice system upright and of high virtue. Aside from the territorial force’s job in protecting and policing their respective areas, the UK Police must able to prevent and handle national crimes such as drug dealings, human trafficking, organised crimes, sexual harassment, child abuse and domestic violence. Crime handling aims to protect the country’s laws, its borders and territories and the children and the youth.

Protect the Country from Terrorism

Terrorist attacks are what the UK Police along with the British Armed Forces are constantly monitoring. The country’s Ministry of Defence together with the highest police officials are constantly monitoring the country’s borders and sea territories for any possible terrorism that may occur. The UK Police also teams up with various local organisations and communities to help them in monitoring and keeping them aware about various counter-terrorism acts. It’s the UK Police job to respond during terrorist attacks, imply current threat levels in an area and create counter-terrorism strategies in order to keep all of UK- its land, water and aerial territories- safe from mass destruction.

Constantly Monitoring Alcohol and Drugs Use all Over the Country

There have been quite an abundance of records on reports about accidents and crimes that involve drugs and alcohol. Though alcohol is legalised in the United Kingdom under an appropriate age, anybody is subjected to a criminal offence once alcohol is misused, abused and sold irresponsibly that may have caused public stir and damage. One example that the UK Police is constantly monitoring is DUI where car accidents have been rampant. Another is the usage of drugs that is strictly prohibited by the law. As dedicated public services, the UK Police must arrest those who have sold and used prohibited drugs. Most of all, it’s also their duty to put more responsibility on individuals in seeking help and overcoming dependency.

Aside from these three major duties to the country, the UK Police have been working with various agencies and of course the government in promoting equality all over UK. Every citizen is entitled to a fair justice where those who have committed crime shall pay and those who have been victimised must be protected. The UK Police conducts a continuous process of rendering services and conducting research and statistics to perform their duties more effectively along with the changing trends.

Most of the police forces of the United Kingdom use a standardised set of ranks, with a slight variation in the most senior ranks for Greater London’s Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police. One example of variation is that from the London Police, there are fewer ranks above the Chief Superintendent. These are:

• Commander- the non-commissioned officer in charge of a section, vehicle or gun sector, to the subaltern or captain commanding a platoon, or to the brigadier commanding a brigade.

• Assistant Commissioner- the third highest rank in the London Metropolitan Police, ranking between Deputy Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis. This rank is only used in the London Police alone.

• Commissioner- referred to as the senior police involved in responsibilities equivalent that of an ambassador.

Aside from these three, the standard territorial police rankings are in descending order as follows:

• Chief Superintendent- senior to Superintendent and junior to the Asst. Chief Constable, the Chief Superintendent is the head the territory they’re designated in. Basically, they are the ones in command of the Basic Command Units. • Superintendent- next in line with the Chief Superintendent, the Superintendent is the commander of a division in a specific British territorial force.

• Chief Inspector- duties may vary from force to force. Chief inspectors may assist the commanders in Basic Command Units, command various units or fill various staff posts. When it comes to matters that involve investigations of serious crimes such as murder, the job is handled by the Detective Chief Inspector.

• Inspector- considered as the second in the supervisory rank, an inspector’s duty is more operational and deals more with the day-to-day policing such as community policing and road traffic policing.

• Sergeant- first in the supervisory rank and like inspectors, they handle more on the operational day-to-day policing. Sergeants are often responsible for supervising a shift of Constables and allocating duties to them.

• Police Constable- Upon being sworn in, each officer starts at the rank of Constable and is required to undergo a two year probationary period. This is the starting rank of all police where their main focus is on criminal investigations. Once their two years of experience is finished, they can apply for promotions.