About us
Thames Valley Police is one of the 43 police forces in England and Wales and is the largest non-metropolitan force. It covers over 2,200 square miles and three counties: Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
Our patch is as diverse as they come – historic cities meet vast rural spaces. Cutting-edge organisations work alongside world-class universities. 2.3 million people call it home and 6 million visit each year.
There’s four football league clubs and annual high-profile events including Royal Ascot, Reading Festival and Henley Regatta to keep an eye on. We often rise to unique challenges like Royal Weddings and Presidential visits, with millions of people around the world watching on.
We’re home to Windsor Castle and the PM’s country residence Chequers – which means we’re also home to a Protection Group of armed officers second only in size to the Metropolitan Police.
We also host two specialist regional units, Counter Terrorism Policing in the South East (CTPSE) and the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU). These units work across the South East, and include officers and staff from Thames Valley Police, Hampshire Constabulary, Kent Police, Surrey Police, and Sussex Police.
We work closely with Hampshire Constabulary and since 2011 we have shared a Joint Operations Unit (JOU). The JOU includes our roads policing unit, firearms capability, operational support, dogs unit, mounted unit (Thames Valley) and marine unit (Hampshire).
As you can see, policing our region is no mean feat. It takes a dedicated team of over 8,000 officers, staff and volunteers. Together, we aim to build stronger, more resilient communities, providing a modern police force which meets the needs of the public we serve.
Exciting challenges lie ahead – new digital technologies and ways of working are transforming the way we protect our communities. To ensure we deliver a high-quality service, we require the very best talent to be a part of the TVP family. A role in TVP is like no other and will give you the unique opportunity to take on a role to protect our communities and be the difference you want to see.
Our force is now recruiting. Join TVP and be proud to serve.
Website: https://tvpcareers.co.uk
Reviews
Secure & interesting
I felt very secure in my role and got to go to some really interesting places. They are open to any courses desired to improve your skills. I simple ran out of room to progress in my particular role within TVP with a change of desire to do something a little different. But learnt so much during my time there
Pros
Courses & self improvement
Cons
Completing a PDR every year
Management and the toxic working life.
Toxic workplace, PCs are normally okay although there is a bit of an ‘I’m better than you’ vibe.
Sergeants are hit and miss, but if you have a bad one. You’re pretty much screwed.
Probationers are treated as almost expendable.
Don’t even think about any courses.
They say they care about mental health of their officers, but if you go of with MH issues it will have an adverse effect on your career and sergeants often see it as you wanting to get out of work, again back to the macho attitude.
Line managers are the make of break of this organisation, yet they seem to pick some awful sergeants. Yet, no one listens to the concerns of the officers working under them.
This dream job has turned into a nightmare.
I came from one emergency service to another and went from being fairly satisfied and feeling valued and important to over worked and not valued as a police officer yet alone as a human being.
They say that there isn’t a bully culture in the Police any more. But there just is.
Above will talk down to you, like you’re stupid.
And other offices will make snide remarks about you and behind your back.
Very hostile working environment from an organisation that is meant to be a team, considering what they deal with on a day to day basis.
I would strongly advice anyone who wants to become a police officer to look deeply into what the role is and the people you’ll be working with.
I’ve always had a great deal of respect for the police and yet oddly seem to have lost a lot of that. Simply by working for them.
A real shame really.
Pros
Pay is decent and good Annual Leave.
Cons
Toxic and hostile working environment, from your own team!
Professional and compassionate
An excellent workforce let down by poor middle management.
Excellent teams of hard working professionals.
Marvellous team spirit.
Less bureaucracy than many police services.
Good company to work for
Salary & pension are decent. Job is varied. Management distance themselves from staff & send out morale boosting/condescending e-mails to compensate for this. Majority of the staff are lovely people willing to help fellow colleagues. Some of the supervisors are unhelpful & untrustworthy, whereas others are extremely supportive & helpful. Job can on occasion feel like working in a complaints department. Plenty of holiday entitlement & overtime opportunities. 6 on 4 off shift pattern is decent. Opportunities for progression.
Pros
Salary, Pension, Shift Pattern
Cons
Complaints, Service quality has dropped since entry process was made “easier”.
Contact Management Centre Officer Review- Kidlington
Please really think about your decision about joining this area of work. Everybody goes in with the feel of “wanting to help” or “wanting to make a difference”, but I could probably count fingers on two hands on the amount of times I’ve experienced that satisfaction. The hours are long. You work 6 days on and 4 days off, those 6 days on are either 9/10 hour shifts so nearly working 60 hours straight before having a single day off. The 6 shifts are split between 2 earlies, 2 lates, and 2 nights, so your having to constantly adjust your body clock, and actually spend 2 of your 4 rest days trying to re set your body clock. The shifts are hard, and you need to make sure your ticking your stat boxes (taking a certain amount of calls an hour, spending the right amount of time on the phone, not being on “unavailable too long”). Sometimes you’ve just come off a really distressing call, and have multiple crime reports to write out, if your on busy for some time trying to write these reports, there’s a department that sits in a room and emails your boss to ask what you are doing. Your managers also listen in to some of your calls for your monthly manager meetings, and then they’ve hired another department who sit and listen to your calls and score you with how well you have done, then there’s at least one supervisor a shift checking the rooms reports to make sure they are crimed correctly, there seems a lot more money spent on checking and not enough to fund resourcing! Managers sit at the end of the rooms, and are meant to be there to support us when we need advise on criming or sign posting. I can probably count on one hand who I would feel comfortable to approach for this, you have team leaders staring at their screen ignoring you as if they hope you go away, some that sigh, some that are running around the room stocking up on the tuck shop or checking the tea cupboard. At any point of the room you sit, you can see a tv screen that tells you how many 101 calls are awaiting and how many 999 calls are waiting, when the board says there are 3 or more 999 calls waiting to be answered the team leaders scream “can you get those 9’s”!!!!- we can all see the board and would not ignore it if we could answer- maybe the team leaders should put their headsets on and take one for the team! Majority of team leaders go for the team leader positions to get away from speaking or dealing with the public which kind of goes against why you join the police. You are also really lucky if you get a 999 call and the system
shows you the telephone number, a rough idea where they are, and that your type box field doesn’t freeze!
Just please seriously think about it before you get into this job. 28 and a bit grand a year is really not worth missing a hot meal with your family every night, weekends not seeing friends and family, bank holidays worked, Christmas and New Years worked, Mother’s/ Father’s Day worked, not being able to attend family weddings and funerals because it falls outside of leave protocol.
Oh and also, mental health and well-being is the core of their priority- but don’t you dare go off sick with it or you’ll be scrutinised, and don’t you dare take more than 5 minutes after a distressing call otherwise you’ll be flagged up on your phone wrap times! Leave the mental health crisis’ for your four rest days.
Pros
Not having to do food shopping at a weekend, Working alongside a great bunch of call takers who are let down by team leaders.
Cons
Long hours, unsociable hours (lots of), lack of support from line management, silly office politics