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Using Any Time Any Place Working to Increase Diversity in the Police Force

Written by Womanthology Monday 14 November 2016

Using Any Time Any Place Working to Increase Diversity in the Police Force

T/Chief Inspector Sarah Johnson is the South Hub Operational Commander for the East Midlands Operational Support Service and also a tactical firearms commander. She started out in frontline response and community roles before sitting her professional exams and being promoted She has since worked as a staff officer and force incident manager before undertaking various roles in Specialist Operations. She takes a keen role in developing equality and diversity within specialist roles in the police.

From podiatry to firearms

I took normal GCSEs and A-levels at school, but had a very strong science steer. I was interested in STEM background mostly, and medicine in particular, which made me take a degree in Podiatry (a B.Sc), which I started in Surrey and finished in Northamptonshire. However, at the end of my degree, the only thing I knew was that I didn’t want to do podiatry.

I wanted to be involved more directly in helping the public and solving problems for the public. I joined the police after seeing a recruitment drive at a local fair, and I became a police officer in 2001. I was a PC for two years. I took my promotion exams fairly early and I became a sergeant at two and a half years in the force. Three years after that I took my exam to become an inspector, and during that time I did a variety of response roles and community roles.

From there I ended up specialising in firearms as a result of working in Force Instant Command. I’m now working with Specialist Firearms Command across the region as a temporary Chief Inspector, and I work as an Operational Commander for two forces – Leicester and Northamptonshire, with specialisms around firearms command, and thematically for dogs.

Read the full story: http://www.womanthology.co.uk/using-any-time-any-place-working-to-increase-diversity-in-the-police-force-tchief-inspector-sarah-johnson/