Police Assessment Centre – Written Exercises

Police Assessment Centre – Written Exercises

December 09, 20241 min read

Were you aware the College of Policing have introduced a relatively new exercise into the police assessment centre? Instead of providing you with 40 minutes to complete two reports about  an incident using a blank form, you are now expected to complete two incident reports, one based on a pack of written information and one on a DVD footage of a witness providing an account. Little is known about the format of the form, however, it’s not hard to guess what will be on it. You now have 30 minutes to work through each exercise, however, I would expect that for this extra 10 minutes you will be provided with more information to work through and maybe some ambiguous or conflicting accounts.

To support you in your preparation for this phase of your assessment centre I have developed some detailed guidance for those who are on my Online Police Assessment Centre Course

Briefly, what this involves is an explanation of how to complete the exercises using the following prompts (which should be present on any good incident report form):

Time, Date and Location of incident

Briefly describe what type of incident you are reporting

Name/s or descriptions of person/s involved in the incident?

Description of incident as well as any initial action you would take

Recommendations for further action to be taken and by who

On the course I go into far more detail about what specifically each part of the form should cover. This will enable you to develop your own template prior to the assessment centre. If you have any questions about my police assessment centre course please do get in touch by email. Alternatively I would be happy to be of service should you want to ask any questions. Just email at [email protected]

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Brendan O'Brien

Following a 28-year career working for police forces within the UK and Bermuda, having worked in many roles including Response, CID, and Special Branch, I retired at the rank of inspector and founded Bluelight Consultancy. Twelve years on, we have helped over 15,000 police officers achieve their dream of becoming a fully substantive police constable. We boast a success rate of 98% for new joiners completing the Online Assessment Centre and 90% for those taking on their final interview.

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