Detective Student Officer

**Have you completed your exams? Are you thinking what’s next?**

**Could you communicate effectively with someone who has just been seriously assaulted, had a family member murdered or been robbed at knifepoint?**
**Could you make a positive difference to support the people of Kent?**

There is no cost to you - Kent Police will cover all qualification fees and upon completion you’ll graduate with your diploma and complete your probation period.

**Residency**
- hold a UK passport
- be a British Citizen, member of the EC or other states in the European Economic Area
- live in the UK with indefinite leave to remain in the country with no restrictions if you are a Commonwealth Citizen or foreign national

**Personal requirements**
You **must**:
**Training**
We will provide you with the best training and support to allow you to be the best you can be. Our two-year training programme will provide you with a blend of practical 'on-the-job' experience and classroom-based learning at our training college in Maidstone.

A mentor and detective tutor will be assigned to you to start your specialist training towards detective accreditation.

**Pay and benefits**
The job comes with pay and benefits that you can enjoy from your first day with us. You will also have job stability with varied career progression, leadership pathways and opportunities for promotion. You could work with our dog unit, become a cybercrime specialist, or keep the coastline safe with our Search and Marine Unit. Ultimately, it will be up to you to choose your path and the only limit will be your ambition.

Other benefits available include
- Police pension scheme
- Leave - including paid holiday, maternity, paternity, adoption, and parental leave
- Financial services - including savings, investments, and protection products
- Holiday Scheme
- Lottery scheme
- Local and national discounts
- Free gym and sports section

**Shifts**
For your first two years, you will be posted to a Local Policing team where you will be working a 24/7 shift pattern, on a ten-week (five-week rolling) rota.

There are a variety of shift patterns you could be working:
**Early turn**
- 7am to 3pm Sunday to Thursday
- 7am to 5pm Friday and Saturday

**Late turn**
- 12pm to 10pm Monday to Thursday
- 3pm to 1am or 5pm to 3am Friday to Sunday

**Night duty**
- 9pm to 7am Monday to Sunday

**Location**
During the recruitment process you will be asked which area in Kent you would prefer to work in. Your preference will be accommodated where we can, but this may not always be possible, and you could be posted to anywhere in the county.

**Health and fitness**
Policing is not easy. Not only do you need determination and drive, but **you also need to be healthy and have a good level of fitness.**

If you do some form of regular exercise, you should have no issue meeting the physical requirements of the job. You will be required to run a 15-metre track in time with bleeps which get increasingly faster. You need to meet level 5.4 on the bleep test to be successful.

**Tattoos and piercings**

If you have a tattoo, you'll be asked to provide a brief and accurate description and two digital colour photos of each tattoo:

- a distance photograph to clearly identify where on your body the tattoo is
- a close-up photograph which clearly identifies the images in the tattoo

Tattoos which could reasonably be interpreted as discriminatory or offensive and/or indicate attitudes or views inconsistent with the College of Policing’s Code of Ethics and the Standards of Professional Behaviour will **always** be deemed unacceptable and will prevent you from being able to join us.

Whilst not exhaustive, we have the following guiding principles:

- visible tattoos of weapons (such as images of knives, firearms etc) are unlikely to be acceptable
- visible tattoos depicting controlled drugs (such as cannabis leaves, spliffs etc) are unlikely to be acceptable
- visible tattoos depicting violence, suffering or death are unlikely to be acceptable (simple images of skulls will not usually fall within this category)
- visible tattoos in the style of ‘el dia de los muertos’ (The Day of the Dead) are unlikely to be acceptable if they fall in to one of the above categories, however not all tattoos in this style will necessarily be unacceptable (examples of unacceptable tattoos in this style would include women with their lips stitched together and images of decomposing features)
- visible tattoos which indicate political support are unlikely to be acceptable
- visible tattoos which are sexually explicit or depict nudity are unlikely to be acceptable
- tattoos on the hands, face and neck will only be approved by exception
- a higher tolerance threshold will be applied to tattoos which are not visible in standard uniform dress, however tattoos which are considered incompatible with Kent Police values will still not be acceptable

**Body piercings**

If you have a body piercing or other body modificati