Career pathways | College of Policing

The different routes through policing, whether you’re an officer, support staff or a volunteer.

There are many different ways you can progress your policing career as you gain skills and experience. You can develop in your role, manage teams or become more specialised.

And it’s not just about your workplace skills. Your aspirations and what you do outside of work can also play an important role.

Operational support

Sergeant Faith Morgan worked as a lifeguard, an abseiling instructor and at a circus before applying to become a police officer.

Read Faith's story

Intelligence

Specialist police intelligence operatives build a picture of criminal activity, making use of information from a variety of sources to support local and national crime investigations

Go to intelligence

Investigation

Warranted detective officers and civilian investigators who conduct serious and complex criminal investigations

Go to investigation

Roads policing

Often referred to as 'traffic', roads policing describes the job family that are responsible for policing the road network

Go to roads policing

Neighbourhood policing

The teams of police officers, police staff and PCSOs that police or support policing within the local community

Go to neighbourhood policing

Response policing

The area of policing that primarily responds to emergency and non-emergency calls from members of the public

Go to response policing

Join the police today

Joining the police is life-changing. It's a challenging, varied and intensely rewarding career, working together to reduce crime and keep people safe. Find out about the different ways you could work for the police and be a force for good in your community, a force for all

Go to the national police recruitment site