A new start with Avon and Somerset Police
Jodie is a police officer with Avon and Somerset Police and is a police constable degree apprenticeship (PCDA) student at the University of the West of England (UWE).
In the short time since Jodie joined, he has made a big impression. Jodie has taken an active role within the PCDA as a student representative, acting as the voice of the PCDA student body. He is also a valued member of his response team. Back in March Jodie was nominated for the ‘Officer of the Year’ award.
Jodie originally joined Avon and Somerset Police as a PCSO in 2019, working initially in Somerset West before transferring to Taunton. It was never his intention to become a Police Officer as he really enjoyed the community level work which comes as being a part of the neighbourhood team. However, as his career progressed, he found he wanted to do more. He started working a lot of overtime, working side by side with response officers and began to understand more about the PC role. Initially, Jodie was put off by the PCDA programme and having to go back into education, however, the more Jodie learnt about the programme, the more it started to interest him. Eventually, Jodie applied for the role of PC and was successful, being posted to Taunton to work with response Team 3.
Training
As a PC, Jodie has undergone a lot of additional training already and has tried to upskill as much as possible and has found a bit of an affinity for traffic related incidents. After his time on response, Jodie hopes to return to neighbourhood policing, however, the ultimate goal would be to join the Roads Policing Unit before looking at studying to become a sergeant.
Before Jodie’s first day at UWE, it had been 23 years since he was last in education and he was very nervous. However, he found the UWE side of the role surprisingly enjoyable, not just learning about law and legislation, but about why these things exist, the history of policing, as well as how and why things progress as society changes. For further information, visit: www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/apply/jobs-and-volunteering/police-officer
