Joining Oz Police - Preferably Q'slnd or NSW
Sep 30th 2008, 3:04 pm
#1
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 4
Joining Oz Police - Preferably Q'slnd or NSW
Hi All,
Im new to this site and am looking for advice from expats who are currently serving in Australia.
My wife and I are both serving officers in London, she's a mounted officer with 4 years service and Ive got 7 years, we've both had enough!!
I have been reading the threads and it seems that the Southern force is getting quite alot of bad press so Queensland or NSW seems like a good option. Is this the case??
As I understand you have to get residency before you can apply to these forces, is this reasonably straight forward?
Are skills gained in the UK - mounted branch / advanced driver worth anything in the application process / when you get out there??
Most of all though . . . how is the job in general?? I know the grass isnt always greener however I have heard some real sucess stories of people who have come over to join the job and have prospered in their new lifestyle. Ive also heard of a few people who hate it and are back on the plane within a couple of weeks.
Any advice would be greatly appriciated.
Many Thanks,
Jake
Im new to this site and am looking for advice from expats who are currently serving in Australia.
My wife and I are both serving officers in London, she's a mounted officer with 4 years service and Ive got 7 years, we've both had enough!!
I have been reading the threads and it seems that the Southern force is getting quite alot of bad press so Queensland or NSW seems like a good option. Is this the case??
As I understand you have to get residency before you can apply to these forces, is this reasonably straight forward?
Are skills gained in the UK - mounted branch / advanced driver worth anything in the application process / when you get out there??
Most of all though . . . how is the job in general?? I know the grass isnt always greener however I have heard some real sucess stories of people who have come over to join the job and have prospered in their new lifestyle. Ive also heard of a few people who hate it and are back on the plane within a couple of weeks.
Any advice would be greatly appriciated.
Many Thanks,
Jake
Oct 5th 2008, 1:55 am
#2
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 32
Re: Joining Oz Police - Preferably Q'slnd or NSW
Hi Jake,
Well your correct about the bad press in the South, I'm in the process of getting out once I've established another position.
The Forces in NSW and Queensland will only accept experienced police officers once they have residency.
So for someone like myself with residency I can move to them as a 'lateral transfer' but unfortunately the only departments taking on recruits direct from overseas are SAPOL and WAPOL.
So basically you would need to firstly get into either of these forces, stay the minimum, get residency and them move on like so many have.
SAPOL have decided that they lost too many UK recruits recently and have now decided to actually give RPL. Therefore if your wife being a Met mounted officer wishes to go to SAPOL's mounted cadre, she would get there faster than say a general recruit, but you still have to finish probation first (Which may change as well)
Same goes for other specialist areas in SAPOL, CIB (CID), Traffic, STAR group (Special Tactics and Rescue) well you know what I mean. In the years past most have just been left on general partols (areas in most need of staff) and have had to fight to get anywhere, therefore have just left the job. I could be wrong but I think the whole first course of UK recruits have left SAPOL.
This is also going to apply to recognition for previous rank too, so they say, they are going to fast track people back to there old UK ranks! Big changes in SAPOL to come, lets wait and see if it happens hey? Personally I find it hard to believe that an a former ex pat Inspector will finish probation here, then get his rank back as an Inspector here...Mmmm...I could see some problems with that from within maybe.
I know WAPOL have RPL and rank, some ex pats are already Sergeants and Senior Sergeants! Sergeant and Senior Sergeant is like Inspector in the UK, Aussie police have a lot more ranks. In SAPOL it's cadet, Probationary Constable, Constable, First Class Constable, Senior Constable, Senior Constable 1st Class, Sergeant, Senior Sergeant, Senior Sergeant 1st class then you go to Senior ranks starting at Inspector. A cadet starts of now in the $40,000 range then the pay keeps increasing with rank and years service up to an Inspector who is on around the A$100,000 PA If you stay at Constable, your pay stays at I think around A$56,000 PA + penalties, something like that.
Anyway with the changes to come in SAPOL it may be worth looking at, even though I've had enough, you guys may love it, especially if these changes come in.
One thing to remember, it's not as cheap to live here as first expected, housing is getting harder to get and the homes are on average $300,000-$400,000 in the suburbs, fuel fluctuates between $1.50 a litre to $1.70, a tiny piece of steak is about $6.00 at the supermarket!! But if that isn't an issue, SA is a real nice State to live in, wonderful beaches and weather.
Anyway food for thought and hope this info helps Jake.
Well your correct about the bad press in the South, I'm in the process of getting out once I've established another position.
The Forces in NSW and Queensland will only accept experienced police officers once they have residency.
So for someone like myself with residency I can move to them as a 'lateral transfer' but unfortunately the only departments taking on recruits direct from overseas are SAPOL and WAPOL.
So basically you would need to firstly get into either of these forces, stay the minimum, get residency and them move on like so many have.
SAPOL have decided that they lost too many UK recruits recently and have now decided to actually give RPL. Therefore if your wife being a Met mounted officer wishes to go to SAPOL's mounted cadre, she would get there faster than say a general recruit, but you still have to finish probation first (Which may change as well)
Same goes for other specialist areas in SAPOL, CIB (CID), Traffic, STAR group (Special Tactics and Rescue) well you know what I mean. In the years past most have just been left on general partols (areas in most need of staff) and have had to fight to get anywhere, therefore have just left the job. I could be wrong but I think the whole first course of UK recruits have left SAPOL.
This is also going to apply to recognition for previous rank too, so they say, they are going to fast track people back to there old UK ranks! Big changes in SAPOL to come, lets wait and see if it happens hey? Personally I find it hard to believe that an a former ex pat Inspector will finish probation here, then get his rank back as an Inspector here...Mmmm...I could see some problems with that from within maybe.
I know WAPOL have RPL and rank, some ex pats are already Sergeants and Senior Sergeants! Sergeant and Senior Sergeant is like Inspector in the UK, Aussie police have a lot more ranks. In SAPOL it's cadet, Probationary Constable, Constable, First Class Constable, Senior Constable, Senior Constable 1st Class, Sergeant, Senior Sergeant, Senior Sergeant 1st class then you go to Senior ranks starting at Inspector. A cadet starts of now in the $40,000 range then the pay keeps increasing with rank and years service up to an Inspector who is on around the A$100,000 PA If you stay at Constable, your pay stays at I think around A$56,000 PA + penalties, something like that.
Anyway with the changes to come in SAPOL it may be worth looking at, even though I've had enough, you guys may love it, especially if these changes come in.
One thing to remember, it's not as cheap to live here as first expected, housing is getting harder to get and the homes are on average $300,000-$400,000 in the suburbs, fuel fluctuates between $1.50 a litre to $1.70, a tiny piece of steak is about $6.00 at the supermarket!! But if that isn't an issue, SA is a real nice State to live in, wonderful beaches and weather.
Anyway food for thought and hope this info helps Jake.
