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/