Roles and development opportunities available to help progress your career in roads 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 roads policing.
On this page, find out about:
Roads policing
Ensuring that the road network operates efficiently and that those who use it can do so safely and securely is vital.
Introducing the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) roads policing strategy, Chief Constable Jo Shiner said:
"The UK has historically had some of the safest roads in the world and yet we still see more than five deaths and many more serious injuries on our roads every day.
These tragic and often avoidable events always have a significant and life-long impact on the families affected, and on the individuals who have to live with their injuries.
That is simply not good enough and every one of us must share the responsibility to influence the way in which our roads are respected and used."
The role
Experienced officers from other uniformed roles, such as response or neighbourhood policing, often enter roads policing roles. With the development of serious collision investigation units, officers with investigative backgrounds are also valued.
Normally, you will have some form of driver training through a response course and initial phase pursuit. This will be developed further through an advanced driving course and tactical phase pursuit (TPaC) training.
You will receive training to develop your knowledge of the core roads policing functions and the NPCC roads policing strategy, including how to apply them when policing the roads.
This includes specific focus on road traffic act legislation and the major causes of fatal and serious collisions. These are known as the ‘fatal four’:
- speeding
- driving under the influence of drink or drugs
- not wearing a seatbelt
- mobile phone use
Road safety is a significant aspect of the role. You will develop your knowledge and understanding of why certain groups of people are especially vulnerable in the roads environment, and identify the places where they could be most vulnerable.
You will develop your skills in safely responding to and investigating road traffic collisions, involving serious, life-changing injuries and fatalities. This includes:
- assessing risks
- securing and preserving the scene
- working with partners such as other emergency services, national highways, and local highway authorities
Activities will also be linked to force and local priorities, including organised criminal activity on the road network. You will learn how to utilise your specialist skills and knowledge to counter such activities, including drug smuggling, trafficking, insurance fraud and county lines activity.
Role profile
Find out more about the roles available within roads policing including the role purpose, main responsibilities and the skills required. You will need to log in to College Learn to access the profiles.
Training
The roads policing and police driving national policing curriculums provide the nationally recognised learning standards relevant to roads policing officers.
You can also search a full list of College-run courses, programmes and other learning.
| In-role training | Other training |
|---|---|
| Officer road safety | Response and advanced motorcycling |
| Drink drug driving | Tactical phase pursuit (TPaC) |
| Roads policing scene manager | Evasive and offensive driving |
| Supervising and reviewing serious collision investigations | Protected convoy driving |
| Vehicle examination: advanced, forensic and roadside testing | VIP protection driving |
| Commercial vehicle enforcement | Escorting other vehicles |
| Stolen vehicle examination | Off-road driving |
| Carriage of dangerous goods by road | |
| Tier 3 - Class 7 radioactive material | |
| Leadership and management in roads policing |
Career stories
Progression
Roads policing is multifaceted and there are many opportunities to specialise within the role, including:
- drink drug driving
- collision scene management
- vehicle examination
- commercial vehicle enforcement
- carriage of dangerous goods by road
- family liaison
Roads policing officers responsible for investigating fatal and serious life-changing road traffic collisions are required to attain investigator status within the professionalising investigation programme (PIP).
You may become a forensic collision investigator (FCI). FCIs attend the scenes of fatal and serious life-changing collisions to gather and provide expert evidence to the serious collision investigation team and the criminal justice system.
If you are looking at progressing through the ranks, you should read the national police promotions 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.
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
- forensic collision investigation
- investigation
- response policing
- neighbourhood policing