CO19 armed unit, Can anyone answer my questions? About joining! Please look!?

Bear

In the UK forces you have to join and complete your probationary period first. After that I would suggest spending time working the beat and gaining experience. I spent 8 years on the beat before becoming an AFO (Authorised Firearms Officer).

Obviously you have to wait for vacancies to come along and then submit an application which has to be backed by your line managers. The competition is stiff due to the large numbers that apply. I had to submit a general application followed by a further application giving examples under specific skill headings. After this we were all subject of a paper sift, where numerous candidates were discounted at the first hurdle. We also had a fitness test, which admittedly was fairly easy. After this came an interview before the successful candidates were selected to attend the next available firearms course.

The firearms course consisted of five weeks, split between shooting and tactics. It was fairly testing and if you failed a classification on any weapon you were instantly binned from the course.

I have been a firearms officer for 4 years and can honestly say I love the job. I mostly work the ARV's attending and dealing with spontaneous firearms incidents. This can be the most testing work because preplanned jobs cater for every eventuality. I also get involved in preplanned jobs as well. In any downtime we patrol in the ARV's and deal with normal police work. We get involved in pursuits and make plenty of arrests. We generally hand prisoners on though as we have to stay available for any deployments.

The pay is no different to any other officer, whether that be a beat officer or other specialist officer. The pay is rank and scale related. You basically get a pay rise each year until you reach the top payscale in that rank.

Ben

Why not contact the police force directly, they can answer all the questions you may have?

Here's the met police's recruitment website: http://www.metpolicecareers.co.uk/contactus.html

They have a number on there (0845 727 2212) for enquiries and general comments. They're probably the best people (other than maybe a CO19 officer) to talk to.

frankturk50

Simple answer you cant join firearms unit you join the police and when you have served a few years you can apply and will be assessed if suitable.

UKPolice

The Armed Unit is a Specialisation job.

Like the Police Officer above me said, you have to have served a few years in the Police before you can move onto working with Special Units.

The Special Arms Unit need experienced officers, which is why you need to have completed a few years in the Police. If you manage to get into the Police, you need to do the two year probationary Period, and then work for a few more years so that you can gain the experience needed to be accepted by Specialist Units.

You also need to prove yourself as a good officer and be able to keep calm and work well with others.

Hope this helps, good luck with joining the Police.

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