On your path to becoming a police officer, one of the biggest challenges you will face is the role play stage of the assessment centre. Unlike standard tests, where you sit down and answer questions based on your knowledge, the police officer role play exercises test your understanding in a verbal environment. However, these are also unlike interviews. You aren’t being asked questions in a formal, verbal style. Instead, the role play exercises test you in a less predictable environment. You’ll assume roles specified before starting the exercises. Then, during the assessment, you’ll need to fulfil the roles to the best of your ability.
What are the Police Officer Role Play Exercises?
The aim of the police offer role play exercises is to see how you react in different situations. These scenarios might not be too different to ones you face in the police service. There are four of these exercises, and each will test you in different ways. In particular, your knowledge and application of the core competencies will be assessed in these exercises. Therefore, it’s important that you use them well.
It’s worth remembering that these exercises are taken one-to-one. This means that you will be in a scenario with a single role play actor. There will also be an assessor present who will be judging your performance as you pass through the four exercises.
The Two Phases: Preparation and Activity
So, there are four different role play exercises, and each is divided into two parts. The first section is known as the preparation phase, and the second is the activity phase. The preparation phase will be where you’re introduced to the role play scenario, as well as your role and the role of the actor. You’ll also be given any extra materials that you may need to complete the exercise here. This preparation phase will be five minutes long; once your time is up, you’ll need to move on to one of the role play rooms, and therefore onto the activity phase.
The activity phase lasts for five minutes for each of the four exercises. This means that, over the course of the assessment, you’ll spend a total of twenty minutes in role play scenarios.
In the activity phase, you’ll begin your role play task. The scenarios you will face revolve around a retail centre, but the specifics will differ. To succeed in this phase, you need to remember the following:
• The role play exercises are designed so that you show knowledge of the core competencies and apply them where appropriate. Make sure you know them well in advance;
• You can’t take notes made in the preparation phase into the activity phase. You’ll have to commit the key details to memory;
• You need to focus on the role play actor during the exercises, listen to what they have to say and be respectful.
Conclusion
Finally, remember that while the police officer role play exercises are designed to be rigorous and challenging, the assessors aren’t looking to fail you. If you prepare sufficiently and make sure you know what you’re getting into, you have a good chance of scoring highly and demonstrating you have what it takes to be a police officer.
See here for more assessment centre role play tips and information on how to ace the police officer role play exercises.
