Roles and development opportunities available to help progress your career in response policing.
This career pathway is a guide to help you plan your professional growth. It outlines the roles, skills and training opportunities available to help you progress in response policing.
On this page, find out about:
Response policing
Response policing is the term widely used to describe the teams of police officers that respond to emergency and non-emergency calls from members of the public.
Response policing teams are made up of constables and a sergeant with a response inspector overseeing them.
New and serving constables usually enter response policing roles.
The role
Response officers are at the heart of uniformed policing and often are the first police officers many members of the public come into contact with.
Responding to incidents is their primary role, this can include:
- protecting the public
- proactively patrolling their communities
- managing critical incidents
- identifying and obtaining appropriate help and support for vulnerable people
- applying conflict management techniques
- giving emergency first aid
The response officer needs to be competent in a range of skills and must keep up-to-date with changes in the law and policing.
One of the most important aspects of the response officer role is adhering to the 'golden hour' principles at the start of an investigation.
In this initial hour of a crime taking place, the actions of the response officer are key, as they will be responsible for preserving life and evidence, as well as identifying the victims, suspects and witnesses.
Role profiles
Find out more about the roles available within response policing including the role purpose, main responsibilities and the skills required. You will need to log in to College Learn to access the profiles.
Development
Lateral development opportunities are available, with many officers receiving training in method of entry tactics and training to be part of a police support unit (PSU) dealing with crowd control and public order.
By enhancing these skill sets, officers are able to work in other areas of the force, such as policing football games.
Response officers may train for qualifications in police driving and Taser.
Each response officer will have a unique set of skills that makes them an asset to their team and helps them branch out into other areas of policing.
Those in sergeant and inspector ranks will often be the first supervisors at critical and major incidents, overseeing complex and dynamic situations.
In some forces, inspectors will often be the most senior officers on duty and will be continuously reviewing the demand on their resources, deploying officers effectively and making use of their powers in law, such as granting extra search powers.
Training
Examples of in-role and other training available to those in response policing. You can also search a full list of College-run courses, programmes and other learning.
| In-role training | Other training |
|---|---|
| Safeguarding | Digital media |
| Professionalising investigation programme (PIP) | Police search adviser (PolSA) |
| Assessing risk and vulnerability | Tutor constable |
| Standard driving | Disaster victim identification |
| Advanced pursuit | Public order |
| Officer safety | Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) response |
| Taser | Achieving best evidence (ABE) |
| Communication | Initial attendance at sexual offences reports (SOLO/SOIT) |
| Method of entry |
Career stories
Progression
Response officers can progress within the role and gain skills throughout their career, or they may choose to specialise in other areas of uniformed policing.
If you are looking at progressing through the ranks, you should read the national police promotion framework (NPPF) information. It may not be possible to progress through the ranks within a particular job family, as forces may assign newly promoted individuals or those in acting posts, in line with organisational need.
There are also continuing professional development resources available for response policing.
Fast track
The fast track programme for serving constables is a development programme and promotion mechanism to enable the most talented serving police constables to advance to the rank of inspector within two years.
Exit routes
- learning and development
- specialist support
- roads policing
- investigation
- neighbourhood policing