Anyone contracted for the Police before?

[nemosdad]

Just finished a 9 month gig in a senior role with one in the city. Most of the permies are very nice people, it use to be a slow phased organisation, but got a lot of improvement and agility recently. Very good rate too (heard they reduced the rates a lot too now), bit old and crappy technology internally which sometimes slow you down and you will get used to it, bit control over your in and out time and very less scope of home working due to security reasons.

Just beware of a group of senior contractors who has no idea what technology means tend to form association as they come from same past and will dig grave behind you with drama and politics. Only great advantage you get working for this pseudo org is they are using all cutting edge technologies. I finished my contract and didn't want to renew after that because of this drama and politics. I would love to work with them again but not for that pseudo organisation.




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[RasputinDude]

My first contract was with the police. The force that I was at had retained internal ownership of all of their software development and so the systems were driven from an understanding of the job rather than simply meeting the specification.

I found it very interesting and my respect for the police went up an enormous amount in seeing all of the things that they did for other people which never reached the media.

I would have happily stayed there but the rates were pish.

[Project Monkey]

The basic problem I that the management is primarily by operational officers, who live in a reactive world and aren't too interested about details like scheduling and prioritisation; as far as they are concerned, if something is important, nothing else matters. OK, but if you get three such things at once, picking which to resolve first gets difficult. The absolute priority is keeping the 999 service running; you don't want someone dialling in and getting a busy signal, do you...

Basic rule is Force priorities always outweigh back office support ones which always outweigh administration. The real boss is not the Chief Constable (that's a political role) nor the ACC or DCC, it's the layer under that. And there's dozens of the buggers. As a result. committed resources may disappear at the drop of an operational hat.

But that said, it's a complex environment, it's challenging and time critical and ultimately rewarding. Unlike any other public sector environment, these are driven and very competent people, you have to be able to keep up.

I'm sold! When can I start?

[dogzilla]

Cheers for the information chaps it's much appreciated. Little apprehensive but lets see, will be an experience I'm sure.

[TheFaQQer]

Your experiences are obviously going to vary from force to force - for example, Cleveland police are all run by Steria under their outsourcing deal, so you'd be dealing with Steria rather than what other forces may regard as "normal" police officers / staff.

I did a project with the Metropolitan Police a few years back, but working with the civilian staff rather than those that were officers.

Some people on that project only had a basic check; those who had access to the live data (all development environments had scrambled data) needed SC with a pretty detailed financials questionnaire. I know at least one permie who was working for the consultancy didn't get his SC through, despite being SC cleared by MoD for a previous project.

[malvolio]

Just wondering any information on experiences? Seen and read the SC clearance stuff but not seen much on what it's like contracting for a police force.

The basic problem I that the management is primarily by operational officers, who live in a reactive world and aren't too interested about details like scheduling and prioritisation; as far as they are concerned, if something is important, nothing else matters. OK, but if you get three such things at once, picking which to resolve first gets difficult. The absolute priority is keeping the 999 service running; you don't want someone dialling in and getting a busy signal, do you...

Basic rule is Force priorities always outweigh back office support ones which always outweigh administration. The real boss is not the Chief Constable (that's a political role) nor the ACC or DCC, it's the layer under that. And there's dozens of the buggers. As a result. committed resources may disappear at the drop of an operational hat.

But that said, it's a complex environment, it's challenging and time critical and ultimately rewarding. Unlike any other public sector environment, these are driven and very competent people, you have to be able to keep up.

[Batcher]

I have but it was a long time ago. No special clearances required at the time, just a normal background check for any criminal convictions on me or my immediate family.

[dogzilla]

Just wondering any information on experiences? Seen and read the SC clearance stuff but not seen much on what it's like contracting for a police force.