Learning from difference – CPD in focus day four

Policing doesn’t happen in isolation. At the heart of the British approach is the principle of ‘policing by consent’, with officers and staff drawn from and working with the communities that they police.

Learning from our communities to understand their needs and unique challenges is one valuable way to support our professional development. It also helps us to better serve them.

There are different ways to learn from the communities you police. Superintendent Sukesh Verma describes the approach they have been trialling in Nottinghamshire:

Respect for all is a training programme that Nottinghamshire Police implemented initially with new recruits in 2019 during Operation Uplift.

The vision was simple – to help bring our diverse communities and the police closer together through dialogue, education and greater awareness of personal bias traits.

As a service, we needed to identify new ways to engender greater trust and confidence with our communities.

Within the media, there was still rightly a large focus on stop and search and disproportionality. Respect for all was designed to discuss cultural nuances within our local communities, both in the public and private arena.

The programme was such a success with our new recruits that an executive decision was made to roll the training out to all frontline officers.

Currently, over 700 officers in Nottinghamshire have undertaken this training package.

Superintendent Sukesh Verma, Nottinghamshire Police

Police Constable Andy Shaw has been with Nottinghamshire Police for more than 25 years and is supportive of the programme:

We had members of the Nottinghamshire community talking openly about their experiences of police officers. The accounts were challenging and in some cases upsetting, but it was important to hear what people had to say.

I hope this is the start of a new way of engaging with our community and look forward to the next development.

PC Andy Shaw, Nottinghamshire Police

Opportunities for learning

Difference often provides a good opportunity for learning. For example, learning from someone older or with more experience than you.

Here are some examples of colleagues sharing their learning and experiences.

• Detective Constable Ahsan Anderson of Cambridgeshire Constabulary asks former Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Gee MBE some questions about policing and being a detective.
• Detective Inspector James Ansell explains how his colleagues and peers can bring new and unexpected ideas for CPD training in this video:

• Sergeant Chris Milburn from Durham Constabulary writes about what he learned from engaging with a homeless man in custody.
• Chief Inspector Tony Alogba from Greater Manchester Police shares learning from the recruitment practices in the force and how they work with communities to ensure that the force reflects the diverse communities it serves.
• Thames Valley Police talks about its positive action and engagement team, which supports and encourages people to join the force from ethnic minority groups.
• Police Constable Matt Eld, a neighbourhood police officer, describes why he learned Polish to help him support and positively engage with the Polish community within his force of Leicestershire.
• Detective Inspector Victoria Cubby shares her advice for understanding what CPD might be useful for your team in this video:

Get involved and take part

Join the CPD Focus Knowledge Hub group (you will need to log in to this) to access a range of learning resources and book onto events that forces across the UK are running as part of CPD in focus 2021.

Find more information about CPD week and sign up for the webinars.