Sovia

Hey there, I currently work as a crime desk operator in Scotland and would love to move to Canada. Is there any scope to work in a similar job there?

Thanks

stewie_griffin

No offence, but one of the main reasons I like working as a police officer in Canada is that we don't have 'crime desk operators'.

We do have 'people who answer the phone' though.

Sovia

Charming.

Do they also create your reports, fix your spelling mistakes, remind you of correct legislation and deal with slurred dictation at 4am when they're 'answering the phones'?

If so I'm the woman for the job

nige1521

In our force,
We have a lovely little thing called an interface that creates mindless reports, that aren't actually crimes at all.
I correct my own spelling mistakes and I'm fully aware of legislation, else I've been doing something wrong for the last 14 years! lol
My speech is only ever slurred when I've had too much of the old vino! lol

Anyway, onwards and westwards, due to move to Canada on the 1st of October.

Regards

Nige

Pollyana

Suddenly I am remembering one of the few reasons I was glad to leave my job as a police support officer, the "them and us" mentality......c'mon Nige, not really very welcoming is it ....

Hi Sovia, and a warm welcome to BE from an ex-police civilian (as we were called in my day) - now living in Australia so I can't help on the Canadian front I'm afraid. If Canada is similar to here though, you would need to find another way to migrate rather than using your job, and then apply for police support work once in the country - not a particular skill so its no good for migration purposes generally.
Might be worth asking in the main Canadian Immigration forum though, just in case someone knows of a way you could migrate there

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33

nige1521

There is certainly NO "us" and "them" mentality from my part.

But I didn't post:
Do they also create your reports, fix your spelling mistakes, remind you of correct legislation and deal with slurred dictation at 4am when they're 'answering the phones'?

If I misunderstood, then I apologise.

Regards

Nige

Sovia

Hey pollyanna, thanks for the welcome what do you do now out in Australia?

Nige, try not to take it as a personal insult, we can co-exist

Guess the point I was making was my job is a bit more involved than answering the phones if you're at times the only point of contact for the public and your reports are being submitted as the case. But hey ho every force works different.

I'll try the Canada forum.

SDDep

I would imagine that every force has data entry people and civilian support staff...just as we do here...there you go...nice and neutral...

And welcome!

tim010

To be fair I think this post came across as a little bit patronising in all honesty. Maybe I have mistaken the meaning but it implies that a "crime desk operator" fixes police officer's spelling mistakes while reminding a trained officer, who possibly has slurred speech, of legislation.

Apologies if that was not the meaning of the post but that's how it came across to me.

Tim

tim010

On a more serious note do you have a visa to legally work in Canada as that could be your initial barrier.

Tim

Pollyana

Fair enough - and the other guy was just as bad - lets all shake haneds and co-exist in our little world of police work



Thats the problem as I see it, police support work in itself won't qualify for a skills visa,

I abandoned my last support job in the UK, which was in Fingerprints, for the Disaster Management field over here - I did a lot pf Casualty Bureau stuff back home which helped me break into emergency response work here, and now I work as a coordinator for government response to storms,cyclones, floods and any other disaster that hits Queensland, man=made or otherwise. Fabulous job! However I got in on a Spouse visa, my police-acquired skills would have counted for nothing unfortunately.
Don't know about Canada but here there are far fewer support staff, much more is still done by uniformed officers. In order to work in Fingerprints here, for example, I would have had to join the Force, walk the beat and work my way up and THEN apply to get into Forensics after a few years - hence the change of direction!

stewie_griffin

I didn't mean to be flippant. Well, actually I didn't mean to be really flippant, just a bit...flippant.

There isn't really a 'them and us' because there isn't really a 'them'. I mean there are some (2?) ladies who work in our station in a clerical/admin/audit capacity, but we haven't got the budget for dedicated crime desk operators (it's probably all been spent on machine guns by now). We have to create our own reports, rely on Microsoft to correct our spelling and grammer, and our sergeants to remind us of the legislation, then we cross our fingers that they go guilty at court.

Welcome by the way (smiley face thing here, but don't know where it is on the keyboard).

SDDep

We have our own "them" and "us" down here...it consists of:

Those who work and patrol and those who do not...bunch of pencil pushers the lot of em...hehe...

boshwaggle

I think that police recruitment in canada is suspended indefinitely for non-residents and citizens,and civilian opportunities are usually filled locally. so the chances of them considering a foreigner are probably zero.

dboy

we do have civillians that man the front counters of police stations here, if that;s what you mean. they take minor reports (ones that don't require an investigation - such as insurance claims), assist with criminal records checks, hand out phamplets etc. If there is an issue, they contact the duty constable.

Most are actually city employees.