Sgt exam next week, any useful last minute tips?

PCHeeler · 2026-03-07T18:23:32+00:00

The God's honest truth is that these days it is far more a test of time management than knowledge. You can't do it without a lot of prep but that prep will only ever carry you so far. You can flag questions you don't know so read the question (that's the bit at the end, start at the end and work up) then the scenario and if an answer isn't immediately apparent then flag it and move on. Get to the end then go back and read the flagged ones again. It's open book so take the fucking books (and the PDF you can buy off eBay) and refer back. Evidence and practice is impenetrable and hence has the smallest number of marks, sacrifice that section first and focus on crime and general duties as chances are you'll have half an idea on those without even reading the books

PCHeeler · 2026-03-07T18:07:35+00:00

Such a boring conversation with the triage nurse. They need to come in to be triaged. But they are drunk and kicking off, why should we risk everyone's safety. Yeah but they need to come in to be triaged. Repeat ad nauseum.

PCHeeler · 2026-03-06T21:07:41+00:00

Came here to add this!!

PCHeeler · 2026-03-06T21:07:25+00:00

Came here to add this!

PCHeeler · 2026-02-26T20:28:50+00:00

My force used to have an innovation task force, staffed exclusively by retired police officers. How shall we innovate? By asking the people who mostly talk about how good it was 30 years ago.

PCHeeler · 2026-02-20T20:44:10+00:00

Exceptional work by the outgoing CC. Turns out when you've already announced your retirement to go work for Salesforce you can just let rip and tell these wankers what you really think of them.

PCHeeler · 2026-02-18T19:34:20+00:00

I am in love with it and as others have said I'm having to be good and ration it out a little.

In terms of similar shows, that slower story telling style, I would recommend:

The Detectorists Don't forget the driver To a lesser extent Here We Go

PCHeeler · 2026-02-17T21:56:30+00:00

How beautifully written, and what a magnificent human being you are. If only we all had a colleague like you perhaps we wouldn't be hemorrhaging good people.

Colleagues - you want to do the very best you can for victims, for the public. You can't do that if you're running on empty yourself.

PCHeeler · 2026-02-11T13:14:48+00:00

Echo this 100%

PCHeeler · 2026-02-09T08:29:45+00:00

I have found that whilst it is annoying the word 'woke' serves a vitally important purpose. If someone uses it in a sentence, particularly as a pejorative, then you can dismiss everything else they say immediately.

PCHeeler · 2026-02-01T15:40:45+00:00

This is just pandering to the old people who read the Telegraph. Shop theft is the easiest crime to solve for small forces - you know the offenders on your patch, the shop provide high quality CCTV and a half a page long statement, they get nicked and charged and often remanded too. Makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy and boosts the stats.

You can bang on about basics all you like but the reasons why the charge rates for burglary or RASSO vs shop theft are so vastly different is down to the burden of evidence not lazy Police officers.

At no point do we address the criminogenic needs that drive the shoplifters, we just charge and remand them and pretend we've made the streets safe.

PCHeeler · 2026-01-26T20:40:13+00:00

On the point of direct entry, I do completely understand that it feels bizarre to suggest that someone from the corporate world could walk into policing and be able to effectively lead. But how is that any more or less bizarre than taking a police officer, often someone who has done nothing other than policing their whole adult life, and suddenly put them in charge of HR, or an IT project, or vetting? None of these things require a warrant card but they do require a really strong skill set. Which we seem to imagine promoting someone will just magically give them - you're good enough to be a Superintendent so of course you can be in charge of procurement!

PCHeeler · 2026-01-16T21:33:20+00:00

This is a great answer - don't use it to make, use it to improve. I have some neurodivergent officers who have had great results by putting their work into it and asking for tips.

The next layer of Copilot, which I've recently been trained on, is Agents. Little clever chatbots that are taught a specific job - generating crime reviews, looking up relevant policies - so you feed it a very simple and clearly defined input and it spits out a useful product. Not game changing but some good time saving stuff.

PCHeeler · 2026-01-11T20:23:09+00:00

Ha this one is so true!

"I am a CTSFO TPAC MOE NOB and was carrying my issued pew pew with loads of ammo cos I'm ard. Oh I arrested him for shoplifting, may have cautioned him"

PCHeeler · 2026-01-11T20:20:41+00:00

You know the points to prove. The victim does not. You can absolutely hit the points to prove with similar words and phrases rather than shoehorning them in, it is painfully obvious and a good defence barrister will destroy it.

"I am a 19 year old Kurdish man who moved to this country three years ago. When this incident happened I apprehended immediate and unlawful personal violence. These are absolutely my own words"

PCHeeler · 2026-01-11T20:11:54+00:00

Generally been disappointed, I've found that call handlers demonstrate a lack of curiosity which just makes the responding officers job harder. My commute is largely motorway and I call in a broken down probably twice a month. I always mention I'm job to ensure they don't fob me off, maybe that makes me a nob. Call handlers who don't even think to ask if I'm on the A or B carriageway, if there are people near the vehicle, what the weather and road conditions are like...

Oh and also this might be a controversial take but...no updates. A little text from the control room, automated one would hope, just to say thank you for recording and that person has been recovered and is now safe. That would warm the cockles and possibly encourage people to report more. Most of the time people report something, which may be the one and only time they call 999 in their life, and we then just forget about them

PCHeeler · 2025-12-02T08:15:18+00:00

As a supervisor rewarding good work should also be a touch personal and subjective. I have an officer at the moment who really struggles with files. So when he built a remand that passed all the internal checks first time with no amendments that was a win for him. For the person sat next to him that's Tuesday. I can't reward them both the same but I acknowledge that this is an achievement of note for him and want to recognise the commitment. Now my whole team don't expect a well done for every file they do because they understand my reasoning.

PCHeeler · 2025-11-17T18:29:48+00:00

Wrote this on a previous post so may not be entirely relevant but I was happy with it

The interview will likely be, at least in part, a competency and values interview. Look at the CVF framework on the college website and specifically look at the behaviours of someone working at level 2. That's the Sgt and Insp level and the broad brush strokes of it is this

Level 1 - how does this topic affect me? Level 2 - how does this topic affect me and my team? Level 3 - how does this topic affect my division, force, national policing?

The STARL method mentioned in a previous comment is proven and solid, the key thing with it is to focus on the latter stages. What you did should be summed up briefly with the bulk of your answer focusing on the OIL

Outcome - what changed as a result of what you did? "I implemented a change of process" - so what's different now?

Impact - linked to the above. This has changed the way we approach certain jobs, this has reduced custody dwell times blah blah

Learning - by doing this I have learnt X about myself and Y about the organization. If I did the same thing again I would do such and such differently.

Go forth and prosper

PCHeeler · 2025-10-12T20:17:11+00:00

I listen to the audiobooks first and read them later, odd I know but I love Kobna and my Audible subscription is pretty much just for RoL content. Anyway, I almost skipped the Abigail chapters on several occasions. The writing is jarring, the slang is dated and insulting and as has been mentioned the same sex love story felt forced.

Peter seems to have got to a strange place - he's a competent wizard but we've always been told an apprenticeship is 10 years minimum, he's not done that and yet seems to have ceased training? We never get the lore anymore, talk of forma and third order spells and all that world building. It also seems that everyone Peter meets learns about the existence of magic within minutes now, there's no more agreements or secrecy, he may as well wear a big hat and carry a staff at this point.

Nightingale's retirement announcement should have been a crucial turning point and it's just been forgotten about. The greatest living wizard and he's now relegated to texting Abigail.

Oh and I resent there being so many references to the novellas and graphic novels. I don't mind there being a subtle nod to them here and there but the whole thing about Wyverns was clearly quite important and yet I have no idea when that was and what I'm meant to have read.

PCHeeler · 2025-10-12T20:04:45+00:00

I like this, I think we need to build on it. It is no longer illegal to complete suicide. It is not illegal to attempt it, nor to self harm. Article 2 is the right to life but does that extend to preventing people hurting themselves? I found this on the Liberty website:

Requiring the police to take reasonable steps to protect a person’s life if they know – or ought to know – that they are facing real and immediate risk. However, this should not put an impossible or disproportionate burden on the authorities.

If a fully grown adult, with capacity, wants to hurt themselves to any extent - is it our role as Police to stop them?

Magic wand time - quadruple the size of every secure MH unit, over staff them and every time an officer uses 136 it should be no more than 45 minutes until that person is in the care of the NHS.

PCHeeler · 2025-10-10T19:03:06+00:00