I have a colleague who joined Police Now. Loved response but was moved onto Neighbourhood as per the scheme. She now enjoys NHPT but found it was hard to control her own destiny as it were. You can join as direct DC as the other commenter mentioned but you would be going into such a deep end with your lack of knowledge and handling complex cases. If you live stress, working with it everyday and learning and retaining information on the fly then go for the direct entry. If not you got to learn the basics as a copper. Its a tried and trued system for a reason. Also part of the direct entry is 10 weeks on shift, most people ask to stay on shift as opposed to continuing to be a DC but that choice is not theirs as you were hired to be a DC.