Latest influx of cop recruits join force
NEW Cheshire police recruits have started their training as regular officers.
The intake is the first to come through the force’s new Insight programme, which seeks to encourage and support officers from a ‘variety of communities’ to join the force.
The group of 39 recruits also includes the first nine trainee officers who have come through the Police Now graduate programme.
The national scheme is similar to the Teach First scheme in education and officers coming through Police Now will undertake a two-year programme to accelerate their experience in policing, meet rigorous targets, and mark them as leaders in the industry.
Cheshire Chief Constable Simon Byrne said: “I am really pleased to see Cheshire attracting new talent who will soon be policing our communities.
“I’ve been desperately keen to see the Insight programme succeed in attracting able, talented people from some of our minority communities and it is now bearing fruit.
“Similarly, Police Now opens the force up to graduates who might not otherwise have considered front-line policing to be for them – which will help the force face the challenges of the future.
“What won’t change, however, is the exceptionally high standards of conduct we set, the pride I want them to feel as they police our communities, and the commitment to the force’s ‘we’re here’ commitments which underpins our approach to policing in Cheshire.”
The Insight programme has been shortlisted as a finalist in this year’s Business In The Community Race Equality Awards, and is designed to ensure that the force can attract talent from across Cheshire.
The Cheshire force is also one of seven across the country to recruit applicants from the Police Now programme this year.
Cheshire Police And Crime Commissioner David Keane said: “It was a pleasure to spend some time welcoming the constabulary’s newest recruits.
“Ensuring that the constabulary has a diverse and inclusive police service for Cheshire is some- thing I feel passionately about and so, like the chief constable, I was pleased to see the work of the Insight programme beginning to bear fruit.”
“During my conversations with the public, they are making it clear that they want more officers visible in our communities. The new intake of recruits will only strengthen the chief constable’s hand in being able to achieve this.
“I would like to wish the new recruits all the best with their new and challenging career and I am sure that they will be a real asset in keeping our communities safe.”