Be the Change – Police Now

Police Now’s mission is to attract, recruit and train outstanding graduates with leadership potential to be inspirational detectives and police officers who transform communities. It works in parallel with more than 30 police forces across England and Wales. The partner forces rely on Police Now to recruit and train diverse participants, many of whom may not have considered a career in policing. 

  • Policing needs to be representative of the communities it serves: 14% of the population are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds but only 7.3% of police officers a Recruiting a diverse workforce is essential and in 2020 Police Now committed to accelerate progress to find more graduates committed to delivering change and rebuilding trust in policing.
  • A data-led, evidence-based approach looked across the candidate journey, from potential applicants’ perception of the police, through to participants’ experiences on the programme.
  • The recruitment marketing campaign was built around real people’s experiences of policing; applicants’ individual needs were supported, from one-to-one coaching and interview practice sessions to information sessions for candidates’ family and friends.
  • In 2019 Police Now recruited an analyst to review the end-to-end recruitment process, the employee lifecycle and government data to specifically look for trends with ethnic minority graduates. Understanding this allows the approach to be tailored to speak to the concerns and realities of different groups.
  • The organisation has made long-term investment into channels targeting black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to build a pipeline over many years, and has reached those who would not normally consider policing, with messages targeted to specific demographics and regions, and constant measurement to optimise success.

Judges’ comments: “This was another well-contested category. Overall, the quality was high. However, the judges were blown away with the magnificent ‘Be the Change – Police Now’.”

Also: The judges added that their success in hiring many of those who traditionally would not have considered policing, and the creation of a culture where exceptional graduates were hired regardless of social, ethnic or a gender biased background ensured that this was the outstanding submission.

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