× Clarification: This article was created for Eagle Radio by Greer Riddell not January Media.

See Behind The Scenes Of Surrey Police’s Officer Safety Training

Created by Greer Riddell in Portfolio for Eagle Radio on 16 Jul 2018

Batons, PAVA, Handcuffing and a Bleep Test: Journalist Tom Cantoni is invited to go behind the scenes of Surrey Police and see whether he has what it takes to become a Surrey Police Officer.

Watch our Surrey Police Training Video on YouTube.

The number of police officers across England and Wales has steadily decreased year on year since 2010. Although in Surrey, from March 2016 to March 2017, there was a slight rise.

How To Become A Surrey Police Officer?

Recruits go out on street duties accompanied by a tutor for three to four months, but before that they have to go through 12 weeks of physical and classroom training. Part of that is officer safety training - Eagle Radio reporter Tom Cantoni spent a day at Surrey Police HQ, Mount Browne, to find out what that involves.

“I think people think it's easy and it's not an easy job.. They come in and it's the first time they may have experienced conflict… and this is obviously a safe environment once, but, you get to the streets and it's not a safe environment. We're not there [to blow a] whistle to stop it when it goes wrong!” - Sergeant Mark Ellison on why the training is so important.

“It's a job like no other I think every day is different, you don't know what you're going to be doing and you know you've got the opportunity to make a real difference to some individuals [or] to groups of people. It's really quite rewarding and quite a challenge as well which is good!”

What does Police Officer Safety Training Involve?

From baton training, trying PAVA, Handcuffing and a Bleep Test, journalist Tom may have only been at Surrey Police’s Safety Training for a day but he definitely got stuck in!

You may wonder why the Police would use PAVA on their own recruits, Sergeant Ellison explained more: “the reason that we do it at the office is if I can understand how it feels and the pain side of it okay. Actually, when it comes to justification- they've had it and they've been exposed to it so now when they're in that situation they can think ‘I've been there, does this warrant me causing this much pain to someone? Can I justify what I'm doing in these circumstances?’