Four recruits, Kristina, Polly, Daniel and Klint, talk about the varied training and placements they complete together while at the Academy.
Video transcript
A day in the life of the Academy, it's everything.
It's from being in the classroom to getting in the pool, to running around the track.
Today we have just been in a sports class. Just being able to see in practice how you jump and how you move around without a vest and then putting one on, has been really good to see.
Today we've been practicing one of our assessments. So a pair will go up, they'll role play the situation, and then we'll just do a bit of a debrief.
Today we just did a bit of door drills. Learning how to enter a house safely, working in teams.
You do a lot of learning about law. The instructors do a very good job of breaking it down and you learn piece by piece.
You might be in the classroom learning the concepts, but then they put it into practice and you do your pracs and you go outside and you really get into them as well. So you learn it in a practical sense.
You can't think that you just going to be in the classroom all day. You’re doing that and then you're up onto the next thing.
You learn how to safely and securely apprehend an offender.
Learning different situations you're going to be put in. Not every situation will be the same.
And then when you go out to placement is when you really start building on that.
The first placements is what they call Watch House Week, where you'll go out to a police station and you're there for a week. You stay in the watch house and learn how things are done there. Then after that you get a week's leave, which is nice.
The second placement you go on you do two weeks in the city, which is more operationally policing related. The third one is Van Week, where you go out on patrol.
It’s really laying down that foundation of preparing you for what's going to come.
I've had a very good time with this group.
The close bonds your form straight away, it's really great. You're all in it together, doing the exact same thing day in, day out together.
They really make you welcome and really want you to succeed and you really feel that.
Just seeing that whole team comes together and it just works like and it's really satisfying to know that that's what a police force is. All different ages and all different backgrounds work together as one.
We have people in our squad that have come from all different walks of life.
I worked as a supervisor.
I worked in an office job before this.
I was an admin officer.
Prior to this I was an ice cream maker.
Joining the police force is something I've always wanted to do.
I first joined to have a bit more of a job that has more impact in people's lives.
I felt like I wanted something a bit more dynamic, exciting and challenging.
It's a very different environment being here but you feel backed and like you've made the right decision from the very start.
You've got your squad, they're there to help you. You've got the instructors, also wellbeing.
You'll learn that the days go slow and the weeks are really fast here which is so true.
It's different every day.
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