By Chris Warburton Host, BBC Radio 5 Live
Every driver knows what it’s like to see the blues and twos – the flashing lights and sirens of an advancing police car – in your rear-view mirror as you quickly manoeuvre out of the way. Seeing it from the other side is as exhilarating as it is eye-opening, as I discovered when PC Damien ‘Damo’ Stevens, a driving trainer for Durham Constabulary, took me up to speeds of 90mph on a city ring road during Monday morning’s rush-hour. It certainly wasn’t a normal start to the week, but then my visit to the Meadowfield Police Training Centre in Durham, was some distance from a normal day.
I was there to host a live programme as part of a month-long Policing the UK series on BBC Radio 5 Live, in which we’ve explored wide-ranging issues around law enforcement. For the past 17 years, Meadowfield is where rookie police officers for the Durham Constabulary have learnt to do the job. And on this day, in this huge, aircraft hangar-like facility, I witnessed 24 brand-new recruits taking part in a dizzying series of role-playing scenarios; learning skills such as methods of restraint, use of a taser, gaining entry to a property and, eventually, learning to drive like Damo. There’s a fake high street for training exercises, complete with a betting shop and a pub called Joe’s Tavern, which is fully equipped with a dartboard, fruit machine and fake blood on the floor.
The newbies I was following were on the three-year Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship. Among them were 27-year-old James and 22-year-old Lily, who was still getting used to seeing herself in uniform. “It might sound cliched, but I want to help people, and I want to push myself,” she told me. “My mum cried, happy tears though. My grandma wasn’t so happy because she’s worried about me, but once they saw me in the uniform, they were all so proud.”
James is embarking on a massive career change. Just a few weeks ago he was the manager of a high-end restaurant. “It’s going to be so different,” he said. “It’s a much more active role and I needed a new challenge in life.” Enthusiastic new recruits like Lily and James will be welcomed into the force with open arms, but the heady excitement of so many new faces can’t hide the serious recruitment challenges of recent years.
First there’s the numbers. Many of the new officers coming into the system are replacing the approximately 20,000 who left between 2010 and 2019 as a result of government cuts. While the number of police officers is no
