Marc
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Registered: 11th Aug 02
Location: York
User status: Offline
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Eck
Premium Member
Registered: 17th Apr 06
Location: Lundin Links, Fife
User status: Offline
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Around here it's the Panda cars that 9/10 are decent. Traffic have a couple of decent fella's too but most are bampots!
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Haimsey
Premium Member
Registered: 8th May 05
Location: Nottingham Drives: Corsa B
User status: Offline
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This is my dream job. As far as I am aware you need to complete a 2 year period as a normail police officer and pass the basic police driving course - which you would need to do in order to drive panda cars anyway - before being able to apply to be transferred into the traffic division.
Marcy Marc 
White Sport Progress Thread
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Ian W
Member
Registered: 8th Nov 03
Location: Wirral, Merseyside
User status: Offline
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I really don't see the appeal of this job or why everyone raves about wanting to be a traffic cop 
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mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
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My Dad used to be a traffic cop. He likes driving and loves cars but said being a traffic cop gets mind numbingly boring pretty quickly. So he ended up changing to CID.
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Ian W
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Registered: 8th Nov 03
Location: Wirral, Merseyside
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Matty G
My Dad used to be a traffic cop. He likes driving and loves cars but said being a traffic cop gets mind numbingly boring pretty quickly. So he ended up changing to CID.
Thats my point really, surely just driving around all the time gets pretty tedious. CID on the other hand means you get to investigate 
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Welsh Dan
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Registered: 23rd Mar 00
User status: Offline
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The money isn't that bad, especially not with overtime.
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Bonney
Member
Registered: 14th Nov 04
Location: St Helens
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Ste W
You need to have the operation to have your spine removed.
Along with sense of humor and common sense
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Gareth F
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Registered: 16th Jan 08
Location: Location Location
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Haimsey
This is my dream job. As far as I am aware you need to complete a 2 year period as a normail police officer and pass the basic police driving course - which you would need to do in order to drive panda cars anyway - before being able to apply to be transferred into the traffic division.
So you need 4 years of being a PCSO then 2 years as a police officer to get in. Also there are more than 4 different test to complete to drive a panda car. You need to do one to drive them, one to be able to use the blue lights, one to use the siren, driving skill test and i think a pursuit test aswell!
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Welsh Dan
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Registered: 23rd Mar 00
User status: Offline
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You don't need to be a PCSO to get in at all. And there aren't four tests to drive a Panda car either as such. You have to do different tests depending on how you will use the car. Its one test to use the panda car and another to be a response drive, and then you have your advanced driving test and so on. Some forces also require you to have a bike licence as well as a car licence.
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Gareth F
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Registered: 16th Jan 08
Location: Location Location
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sorry thought you did have to be a PCSO to get into the police. Whats the point in being a PCSO and not a police office? You do need to do different tests to use lights and sirens as my mate is currently doing them.
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Gareth F
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Registered: 16th Jan 08
Location: Location Location
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^ sorry im tired 
i re read your post and your correct on the different tests to do different jobs in a panda car. Hence i find it weird when a police car struggles through traffic with lights on but no sirens! also if your not allowed lights or sirens on then you basically cant chase a criminal if they go over the speed limit 
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Welsh Dan
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Registered: 23rd Mar 00
User status: Offline
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PCSO is a bit less responsibility and grief, for a bit less money.
And with regards to tests. You do your basic driving test. You can then drive a panda car and can use the lights and sirens just to pull people over, but not to exceed speed limits, run red lights and whatnot.
You can then do your response drivers test, which means that you can drive the panda cars a bit quicker, use the lights to make better progress and so on.
You then get your advanced driver, which allows you to drive the bigger and quicker cars.
Traffic do a bit more in the way of driving.
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Welsh Dan
Member
Registered: 23rd Mar 00
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Gareth F
^ sorry im tired
i re read your post and your correct on the different tests to do different jobs in a panda car. Hence i find it weird when a police car struggles through traffic with lights on but no sirens! also if your not allowed lights or sirens on then you basically cant chase a criminal if they go over the speed limit
Yeah, its a bit silly. You can do compliant stops, but if they bugger off, theres not an awful lot you can do.
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Shelly
Premium Member
Registered: 15th Nov 00
Location: Lancashire Drives: Astra H VXR
User status: Offline
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my ex is in traffic, well motorway, he'll be prowling the m6, m65, m61 and m55 soon  
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gtitim
Member
Registered: 13th Feb 05
Location: the boonies
User status: Offline
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Some of the replies on here are laughable - if you don't know, why guess???
To join the police - fill in the form, and follow the procedure. Some forces recruit from PCSOs, others it doesnt make a difference.
Here's how the force i work in operates:
Once you get in the police, you have 22 weeks of training, followed by 10 weeks with a tutor and then you are on your own. You have two years from starting date to complete a SOLAP - a 22 unit NVQ in policing to level 3 and 4.
Our force have three levels of driving:
basic - blues n 2s only for compliant stop from behind, No pursuits, no running reds etc
standard - blues and twos training, pursuit training, stinger etc
advanced - high power cars, T-pac etc etc
To become traffic you must do two years, therefore being confirmed in post before applying for traffic. There are driving assessments, fitness, interview and application form.
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MarkSport
Member
Registered: 22nd May 09
User status: Offline
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 blimey all that,doubt i would pass the fitness test.im healthy but couldnt run for ages chasing guys but im guessing i dont need to to drive a car?
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Welsh Dan
Member
Registered: 23rd Mar 00
User status: Offline
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Fitness test is a doddle for getting in. I'm not 100% sure on what the standard is for traffic, but I can't see it being as high as the firearms teams. The standard entrance fitness test means you have to get a 5.4 on the beep test, which is about 4 minutes of running. You then have to do a push/pull test on a dyno machine, getting 34kg push and 35kg pull (might be other way around), which is a doddle as well.
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Haimsey
Premium Member
Registered: 8th May 05
Location: Nottingham Drives: Corsa B
User status: Offline
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In response to what Pcso's actually do, they are a way of trying to get back into the community and gaining the trust of the community along with reassurance that the Pcso's are present. They aim to have a high visibility and physical presence within the community, tackling low level crime and disorder. They were implemented with the intention of getting the police back into the community and not to push them further away and keep them viewed as the enemy. But in my opinion all Pcso's seem to do is undermine the role of the police.
It seems the Pcso's are the soft lovable people where as the police are the more physical side. The two dont work hand in hand, there is still a divide between the two. Why is there a divide? Because of the government making the police force a governmentally accountable body rather than the body that used to be accountable to the community - like the Pcso's are.
Marcy Marc
White Sport Progress Thread
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gtitim
Member
Registered: 13th Feb 05
Location: the boonies
User status: Offline
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Our traffic are all firearms, so the bleep is 11, which is a bit harder!!!
Our PCSOs do a good job, but always seem to be in meetings when you need a helping hand with traffic or scene guards etc.
For me there are two difficult sides to the job :-
1. Dealing with some of the injuries we see, from nasty assaults to sudden deaths to fatal RTCs, and then having to go and tell relatives their son/mum/brother/etc is dead.
2. Balancing a workload - every crime investigated has a victim, and it requires time to investigate. When you have over a dozen jobs, each requiring time, as well as responding to jobs as they come in, and the associated paperwork, it is difficult, especially when every victim expects you to drop everything else and spend all your time on their crime, which you cant do.
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Welsh Dan
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Registered: 23rd Mar 00
User status: Offline
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Are you sure that all Traffic are Firearms trained? I know that some forces insist that the Firearms officers are advanced drivers, but it seems a strange policy to have all traffic officers as Firearms officers. I think the highest beep test that is required for ours is 10.5, for a Firearms Medic.
Anyway, looking at what I wrote about PCSOs, I might have come across the wrong way.
They are incredibly useful as Tim said and tend to know the communities a bit better than the regulars, so they're good eyes and ears for information. They do earn a little less than the regulars though, but don't (usually) have to deal with confrontational situations.
[Edited on 18-06-2009 by Welsh Dan]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
User status: Offline
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Are the advanced drivers different from IAM advanced drivers?
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Welsh Dan
Member
Registered: 23rd Mar 00
User status: Offline
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Yes. However, an advanced Police driver can apply for the IAM bit and get it without doing any further test.
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Lynny
Member
Registered: 3rd Jan 03
Location: oop north! Where people talk properly
User status: Offline
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some people on here talk utter bollocks
I personally wouldnt join the job to purely become a traffic officer, the application process is hard enough, but the initial training is both mentally and physically straining, and then you have at least 2 years of being a beat officer, which IMO is what its all about, being out on the streets dealing with the public and never knowing whats goina happen next.
In our force our traffic and firearms units are also one, have our gun cars, and the traffic officers with knee holsters.
I personally couldnt do the job of PCSO, they get way to much shit (off the public and PC's), mainly down to the lack of powers they have.
I joined the job with the idea of going into traffic one day, but honestly love the idea of just being on the streets.
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Shelly
Premium Member
Registered: 15th Nov 00
Location: Lancashire Drives: Astra H VXR
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Welsh Dan
Are you sure that all Traffic are Firearms trained?
I don't think my ex is
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