How to Pass the Police Officer Selection Process – 5 Tips for Success

Hello, my name is Richard McMunn. Within this audio blog I am going to give you five brilliant tips for helping you to pass the police officer selection process.

So, please do listen to this audio file from beginning to end and also use the links and videos and other resources that I have provided you with on this blog page. These are guaranteed to increase your chances of passing the selection process to become a Police Officer.

The tips are relevant to every single stage of the selection process. This includes the police officer application form, the assessment centre, the written tests, and also the interviews.

When I say “interviews”, I am referring to the assessment centre interview and also the police officer final interview which some may have to attend. So, all of the tips are relevant to every single stage of the process.

Before I get into the five tips, I want you to believe in yourself. I want you to work hard and I want you to do everything that you can to put yourself ahead of the competition when you are applying to become a police officer. We all know that the selection process is tough and it is highly competitive! However, we’ve found methods for how to pass the police officer selection process.

Being a police officer is an attractive role, so therefore, you have to work hard to improve your skills, provide evidence, and also prepare fully for every single stage of the process.

But trust me, it is a fantastic career and it is worth putting the effort in. So, I’m going to help you to pass the police officer selection process. Here are my five tips.

You have to learn, understand, and apply the core competencies at every stage of the police officer selection process.

So, the core competencies are effectively the blueprint for the role of a police officer. They have created these because the competencies are what the police expect you to be able to demonstrate during the selection process.

So, the competencies are:

#1 – Emotionally aware

#2 – Taking ownership

#3 – Working collaboratively

#4 – Deliver, support and inspire

#5 – Analysing information critically.

#6 – Innovative and open-minded.

The Importance of the Police Officer Core Competencies

It is really important that you learn them, make sure the ones that I’ve given you are relevant to the police force that you are applying to join. Also, make sure that you learn, understand and apply them during every stage. This is to ensure you have the best chance to pass the police officer selection process. That is how you are going to be assessed.

WATCH RICHARD’S YOUTUBE VIDEO ON THE POLICE CORE COMPETENCIES

Fitness is really important, but it is not, in my opinion, as important as the core competencies.

Many people will spend a lot of time running and spending time working to improve their fitness to become a police officer.

My advice to you is to work on the 75/25 principle.

You should spend 75 percent of your time developing and providing evidence based around the core competencies. Then, spend 25 percent of your time developing your fitness levels.

With regards to your fitness levels, my advice is to do a combination of these things.

FAST WALKING – Try and aim for 10000 steps a day. There are a number of apps you can use on your phone to assess the number of steps you’re doing – Here’s an app you can use to monitor your steps – STEPZ.

BLEEP TEST – The second thing is get a copy of the bleep test, or the multi-stage fitness test, and aim to get as high as possible.

You will find, if you do purchase a copy of the bleep test, your scores will increase considerably, the more you practice it.

Purchase a copy of the Bleep Test here.

So, buy the bleep test, but also buy a tape measure to map out the length of the track you are running. You can purchase a copy of the tape measure to line up the 15 metre or 20 metre bleep test here.

The other kind of fitness to do in your police officer selection process preparation is outdoor running and also indoor rowing.

You don’t have to go and buy a recurring gym membership, but there is a website called HUSSLE. You pay every time you use a gym in your local area.

So, the second tip is: fitness is important but not as important as the competencies. And as I mentioned, my advice is to work on the 75/25 principle: 75 percent of your time developing the competencies and 25 percent developing fitness.

Click here to super-charge your preparation with our How to Become a Police Officer Online Course.

OK, so for example, competency number three is working collaboratively. This is essentially asking if you are able to work with other people as part of a team.

The police force will require you to work with other police officers and also with external stakeholders too. These include, the fire service, the ambulance service, the local authorities, social services – the list goes on.

Now, some individuals are not capable of working with others, but you will be able to. The way that you demonstrate that during the police officer selection process is to provide evidence of where you have already done that before.

So, for example, one of the interview questions might be:

“Can you give an example of when you’ve worked with other people as part of the team to complete a difficult task?”

Now you have to give evidence and the way to match that is to use the STAR technique when responding to those interview questions.

The way to achieve that is by providing evidence based on the situation you are in, the tasks that had to be done, the action that needed to be done and then you tell them the result.

For example, police competency 5 is ‘analysing critically’. So, one of the interview questions might be you are able to use information to make the right decision in order to solve a difficult problem. So, the question could be:

“Can you give an example of when you used information to make the right decision in order to solve a difficult problem?” This assesses your ability to analyse critically.

WATCH RICHARD’S STAR INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

Tip number four is working in your community.

What are the issues facing your community? My advice is to volunteer and go and work in your community.

Now there is a brilliant government website available where you can volunteer in your local area and it is called Do-It.Org.

So, when you go along to the interview and they ask you questions, or when you complete the police application form, you can say that you have been volunteering in your local community. You can say that you’ve gained insight from volunteering. It is also giving you evidence that you can use based on the assessable core competencies from becoming a police officer.

This is one of the most important tips. Obviously, you are being assessed against many other candidates. There will be a lot of people applying for a small number of police officer roles. On that basis my advice is to get a copy of my guide.

It’s called The Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Police Officer. 

It covers every stage of the police officer selection process from how to complete the police application form, including sample answers, sample tests, insider tips and advice and also test questions for the assessment centre.

It will also help you to pass every police interview, whether it’s the assessment centre interview or the final interview.

Now this guide has been out for over 14 years. Every year it gets updated. It is the number one best-selling book on the internet for passing the police officer selection process.

It’s got over 130 positive reviews and there are many people finding success through it.

We run a series of police officer training courses to help accelerate your preparation: Police Course.

So, I hope you enjoyed that blog post, please comment at the bottom. There is an area for you to add your comments at the bottom this blog. If you’ve got any questions, please fire away and we’ll be happy to help and advise you.

My name’s been Richard McMunn, and I wish you all the very best in your pursuit to passing the police officer selection process.