Civvy Life – Back on the home front
After 11 years in the Military Police, Dan Joyce has successfully transitioned to the role of detective constable with Humberside Police.
What’s your Military background?
I joined in May 2008 and went down to Southwick Park near Portsmouth for my training and joined the Military Police pretty much straight after that. In 2017 I came back to Catterick, having been to Germany and Canada.
How was resettlement?
I was kind of in two minds, whether to leave or stay. You’ve got to enjoy both sides of the job and while I thoroughly enjoyed the policing side of it, I just kind of fell out of love with the green side of it, so to speak.
Another reason was that while we were on exercise, I developed an allergy to Brazil nuts somehow. I got made medically non-deployable. It was a bit of a nightmare because I had to keep having six monthly reviews. I had recommendations to go across to what we call SIB, dealing with more serious crime within the Military but one of the limitations was that you have to be fully, or limited deployable. So, I spoke with my family and had a long hard think about it and made the decision to hand my notice in, while not really knowing what I was going to do.
The resettlement was quite good to be fair, but ultimately, people aren’t just going to give it to, you’ve got to put the effort in and know what you want to do to get stuff done.
How did you come to join Humberside Police?
This is where I grew up and went to school and so on. I saw that recruitment was opening for the police. I spoke with a few people before about whether a Military background helps, and they said that everyone’s judged individually, so it depends on what you put in your application and how you do in the assessment. It’s not necessarily based on your background.
The assessment centre, for me, was quite daunting really. There’s an interview and some roleplay scenarios before you go ahead to a final interview, or not.
I wanted to leave and do policing; that’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I officially left in January 2019 but I’d been told I’d passed in September 2018.
Given your experience, did you have to do much retraining?
Everyone went through exactly the same training. We learn a lot about law and legislation, and obviously arrest and detention and naturally, that came back from what I’d done previously.
What do Veterans bring to the policing role?
There’s a couple of people in the police that I Served with in Catterick. The first time I saw one of them when I joined, I said “Ey-up Staff! How are you doing?” and he had to say: “Less of that now”!
A lot of people notice the discipline. We come from a very disciplined organisation and they can see that we will sit there and listen and do what’s needed to be done. Communication is another important aspect and it’s one of the key principles in policing. Just speaking with people can defuse a lot of situations. I think there’s a wide breadth of life experience that Veterans can bring into the role.
What’s it like being back on Civvy Street?
At first it was sort of new ground. I’ve grown into it. I’ve adapted to it quite well. I met my missus now my fiancé in Catterick. She lives down here with me now. So, I think yeah, I’ve settled into it well.
What’s your specific role with Humberside Police?
I was meant to start in June 2019 but it got pushed back to June 2020. I was sent a questionnaire asking what I was interested in. I wanted to go down the detective route and Humberside Police were running their first ever fast track detective route programme. I was still gearing up to join in June but I got an email saying I’d been accepted and they were now going to process the intake for November.
I started in November 2019. It’s a two-year probation period, whether that be to stay on patrol or specialise, etc. Whereas for me, I did the normal probation and on top of that, because I’d joined the fast track programme, I had to then study for the national investigators’ exam, which is the qualification to go down the detective route.
I got posted to CID in Bridlington and did my detective portfolio alongside my initial probation portfolio and eventually, I got it all done within the two years. I qualified as a detective constable in November 2021.
I would say that previous experience from the Military has helped massively on the detective route.
What’s it like being back home?
I’m more than happy. I like being back here because it’s where my roots are and where I grew up. All my family’s here so it’s nice, especially for things like birthdays or events, to be able to go and not travel two hours to get there!
I’m really content and happy being back and settled. It’s nice and you have a very good work-life balance.
