Applications can be accepted at the age of 17 but any appointment is from the age of 18.

There is no upper age limit for applying to the police service, but bear in mind that the normal retirement age is 60 years and that new constable recruits are required to undertake a two year probationary period for the DHEP or 3 years for the PCDA.

We will accept with your application proof supplied by either the original results slip detailing your name, school/college, date of birth, qualification, awarding body and grade, or a bespoke letter from the school/college, providing the same information.

Devon & Cornwall Police and Dorset Police do reserve the right to insist that applicants supply original certificates.

Some schools and colleges will charge up to £120 for replacement certificates, which can take up to four weeks to arrive. We will not reimburse applicants for any costs associated with obtaining this information.

Applicants must have resided in the UK for three continuous years immediately prior to application.

All officers are required to have a full manual driving licence on appointment. You can apply if you have a provisional licence but any appointment is subject to achieving a full licence.

You must not be a member, or have been, of an extreme political organisation such as a BNP, National Front or Combat 18 or similar organisations.

You should not have any tattoos which could cause offence. If you have a tattoo you will be asked to provide a brief description and photographs of the tattoo. The nature, location, size, prominence and appearance of tattoos will be considered.

Previous convictions or recent cautions, bind-overs or findings of guilt.

Ideally, you shouldn't have a criminal conviction or cautions.

If you do have one, acceptance will depend on the age and nature of the offence. It is not possible to set out a full list of convictions that will preclude a person from becoming a Police Officer.

Each case will be considered on its own merits, and if the offence is deemed sufficiently serious a person will be rejected irrespective of age at time of offending.

There may be circumstances where an individual does not fall within the criteria, but whose suspected involvement in crime, or criminal associations make an offer of employment inappropriate.

Ideally, you shouldn't have a criminal conviction or cautions. If you do have one, acceptance will depend on the age and nature of the offence. It is not possible to set out a full list of convictions that will preclude a person from becoming a Police Officer. Each case will be considered on its own merits, and if the offence is deemed sufficiently serious a person will be rejected irrespective of age at time of offending. There may be circumstances where an individual does not fall within the criteria, but whose suspected involvement in crime, or criminal associations make an offer of employment inappropriate. Click here for National Convictions Guidelines.

Must not have any current County Court Judgements (CCJ) against you.

If you are the subject of an Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA) and can demonstrate at least 6 months of regular payments via a payment plan the force can assess this on a case by case basis.

If you have been registered bankrupt you may apply if it is at least three years since the date your debts were discharged.

You may apply to more than one force at a time, however you can only sit the assessment centre once within a 6 month period, unless otherwise notified by the force you are continuing your application with.

We would only accept transferred applications/scores from other forces during a live campaign.

The force will ask you to withdraw any current application prior to a conditional offer of appointment being made to start with the force.

You will need to reach 5.4 on the 'bleep test' in addition to a warm up. 

BMI needs to be between 18-30. You could still apply but will be on hold until within the BMI standard.

Yes, however you will need to have already obtained a degree.

You can then apply via the Degree Holder Entry Programme – Detective Constable Entry route. You will need to select this as part of your eligibility form. The first year of your training will be ‘response’ based, you will then start to transition to the detective area in year 2.

Unfortunately, we do not offer this for the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship. 

No. All newly recruited Police Officers must undergo a probationary period, so you could not apply for any specialist posts within our forces until you have completed this.

When completing your online application, you will need some personal information, such as:

• Your Driving Licence Number
• Your National Insurance Number
• Details of your home address for the last 5 years

If you encounter technical difficulties during your assessment, please contact the College of Policing support team who will assist in resolving the issue. support@LaunchPadrecruits.com 

You may also contact them via their generic email if you feel your assessment was impacted due to the technical issues. recruit@college.pnn.police.uk

If you have any technical questions relating to the online application form behaviour styles questionnaire or situational judgement test, please use the self-help links on the left hand menu of the e-recruitment system.

If you are still unable to resolve the issue this way then you can email us at via the below link. Alliance Resourcing

We will try to respond to you within five working days during normal office hours, Monday to Thursday 9am–4pm and Friday 9am–3pm.

At the end of each element of the online process you will receive an email to check the e-recruitment system for the update. You are encouraged to ensure you have amended your filter settings as emails can be sent to your junk mail by your spam software.

Devon & Cornwall Police will need to assess the motoring offences. However, if you have more than six penalty points on your driving licence and/or two or more motoring offences within the three years prior to the application date you may not be eligible to apply to join Dorset Police as a student officer.

If you have been unsuccessful at the national sift or online assessment centre within the last three months (based on the date you were notified of the outcome of the process) you will be able to apply but your application would be held in abeyance until the 3 months have elapsed.

No, you would have to go through the official recruitment process like all other applicants in order to qualify as a Police Officer.

Glasses & Contact Lenses

As part of the recruitment process you will need to undergo an eye test. New recruits must have at least 6/12 vision in the right or left eye, or at least 6/6 vision in both eyes. Those who wear glasses or contact lenses, should wear correction where necessary to achieve 6/6 in both eyes.

Colour Blindness

Those with colour blindness are eligible to become Police Officers, but would be restricted from fulfilling certain posts, such as traffic officer or firearms officer. If your colour blindness is monochrome, you would be unable to apply.

For further information please refer to the national standards which can be accessed here.

We welcome applications from people with disabilities as defined by the Equality Act 2010 i.e. a person is disabled under this Act if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term (over 12 months) adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day tasks.

If you require an adjustment to the recruitment process in relation to a Specified Learning Difficulty e.g. dyslexia, dyspraxia, supporting information which provides evidence regarding your disability/the difficulties you experience should be submitted with your application form.

Every request for a reasonable adjustment or accommodations is considered individually to reflect the understanding that every individual has unique requirements.

While diagnostic assessments for neurodiverse conditions are helpful in providing an accurate picture of an individual’s abilities, it is recognised that there can be barriers in obtaining such assessments, for example the cost of reports.

Therefore in support of an application for RAs alternative forms of supporting information, completed by suitably trained and qualified individuals, will be accepted, for candidates who have a neurodiverse condition but do not yet have a diagnostic report. These alternatives include:

• Evidence of exam/assessment access arrangements obtained while in education (known as Form 8).
• Evidence of Disabled Students Allowance report.
• Evidence of Study Aid and Strategies report completed while in education.
• Evidence of Workplace needs assessment report.

Please note:

in cases where supporting information does not provide specific personal recommendations for assessments, it is likely standard RAs will be offered which have been found to be helpful for candidates who experience this neurodiversity.

It will depend upon the nature of the medical condition. We require that all our new officers undergo a medical assessment with our Occupational Health Support Unit. You will need to pass the national medical assessment to be eligible to join. For further information on the national standards please see here.

No. There is no minimum or maximum height restriction.

The process can take up to six months to complete. However intakes are planned throughout the year therefore it may be longer before you commence as a student officer.

An important consideration for every applicant is that you WILL have to work shifts as a police officer, covering a 24-hour period. There are many different shift patterns but generally they cover 8-10 hours Monday to Sunday (earlies, lates and nights) incorporated with rest days. Upon completion you are probationary period, unpaid career breaks of between three months to five years are also currently available. The force does have several family-friendly policies such as a generous maternity leave scheme, paternity leave, child-care vouchers as well as part-time working which is also available in the probationary period.

Whilst on probation you must work at least 24 hours per week (or 1,248 hours per year). However, initial training must be completed on a full-time basis (approximately first 31 weeks). Salary, leave entitlement etc would be calculated on a pro-rata basis. If you are seeking part time hours in order to support you please indicate your intentions at the earliest opportunity.

It is important to note that a request to work part-time will not affect or influence your application in any way, as a decision will be solely based on your evidenced application and subsequent performance over various assessments.

We will allow any candidate who has been unsuccessful at the above stages to apply after 3 months has elapsed.

For Devon & Cornwall Police applicants, initial training will be completed at Force Headquarters, Middlemoor, Exeter, Devon.

For Dorset Police applicants, initial training will be completed between Force Headquarters, Winfrith and Ferndown Police Station. 

Both Forces have identified their learning provider as the University of South Wales, click the link below for further information about the University and course. University of South Wales

If you have completed or are nearing completion of your Professional Policing Degree (PPD) please apply via our PPD route.

All entry routes start on the same pay point. In the table below you can see the pay points at varying stages of your career as a Police Officer, “1” represents the salary at the start of employment.

Your salary will then increase yearly on the anniversary of your start date and by pay awards, which are generally effective from 1st September in any year (as relevant).

Yes. Your Level 2 in English can be for Language or Literature. 

As a police officer, you will be required to drive marked police cars and small vans which have high visibility blue and yellow Battenberg markings. Police drivers must always drive in a manner which promotes public confidence.

If you have any concerns or nervousness about driving, parking or manoeuvring then we recommend that you arrange for some ‘top up’ lessons with a registered ADI Driving Instructor ahead of joining our Policing family.

Officers who show the correct aptitude following their start date can go on to be trained to drive at higher speeds including the use of exemptions in emergency situations. Further training will allow officers to drive specialised high performance vehicles and personnel carriers, this is not available to all and will be assessed by the Driver Training Team. If you have a specific question about driving police vehicles then you should contact our Driver Support Team via email which we will pop into the chat box shortly.  driversupportteam@dorset.pnn.police.uk