Like doctors and lawyers, all police officers will have to have a licence to practise under new Home Office reforms.
I wonder what effect that might have on recruitment. Might it reduce policing as a career choice for some potential officers?
The licence would be renewable, probably every five years, and would mean officers must demonstrate they’ve absorbed their training and guidance and have updated their skills to cope in an evolving crime world.
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If they flunk the licence test, they can try again, but continued failure would mean the sack.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, believes the licence would show the public that officers had reached a certain professional standard and were worthy of their uniform.
But this new regular assessment on top of a stringent vetting process, low public confidence in policing and the daily possibility of personal danger, might dissuade young men and women from wanting to be police officers.
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A friend at the Metropolitan Police told me there were new recruits signing up for five years’ service, not interested in a lifelong career that used to be the norm, when many young men and women followed their parents into policing.
A new generation may believe it would be an interesting, exciting job for a while, but not something they want to do for ever.
And it would look good on their CV, enhancing their career prospects once they’ve decided what they really want to do with their lives.
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I understand the Home Office isn’t worried about such a prospect and believes there’s no evidence that budding doctors and lawyers are put off by renewable licences to practise.
Let’s see what happens.
