Met launches first TV recruitment ad
The 30 second ad showcasing the impressive variety of jobs available is deliberately designed to look like a movie trailer and gives the audience a glimpse into a wide variety of roles, ranging from firearms and explosives officers to safer neighbourhoods and marine police, amongst others.
The scenes are inherently dramatic and give a realistic flavour of the different activities officers carry out in their day to day jobs, aiming to convey to the millions of viewers in London and beyond who love police shows that they don’t need to just watch the action from their sofas but could be part of it themselves if they choose to join up.
The TV ad is part of a suite of assets for the current recruitment campaign that runs across multiple channels including radio, video on demand, tube car panels and other outdoor advertising, website ads, social media and print advertorials as well as in cinema from July.
The Met is growing and it hopes to reach those who want a rewarding career where they can help and give back to London’s communities, but might not realise just how broad an array of opportunities are available for them within its ranks.
While the high impact marketing campaign aims to increase awareness of the diversity of options on offer, at 30 seconds long the TV ad can only give an insight into just a selection of the roles available post PC training. The specialist unit police officer roles on display represent possible future career paths once initial training has been completed.
The Met is keen to rise to the challenge of recruiting thousands of new PCs over the next nine months and wants to hear from potential new candidates as soon as possible. It offers a variety of pathways for entrants to suit those with different backgrounds, experiences and needs, and there is strong support from the first expression of interest that continues throughout the entire training period.
Those interested are being signposted to the dedicated careers section of the external website and the Met’s specialist recruitment outreach teams are also available to contact for further information.
One of the officers featured in the ad is trainee PC Courtney Thompson, currently based in west London, who is a former restaurant manager that fell in love with the PC role on starting her apprenticeship route course. “I wanted to do a job that was meaningful and something that required passion and drive and I thought it was really important for London to have a police force that’s reflective of the communities it serves”, she explained.
“I feel proud to be part of the ad,” added Courtney, who is of mixed Jamaican and Black British heritage. “It’s a really exciting time to join and I’d encourage anyone considering it to apply. There are major changes happening and the vision for the future Met is one anyone would be proud to be part of.”
Another featured is schools officer Nsikan Etuk, who covers youth engagement for Southwark and Lambeth and who himself was inspired to join the Met in the first place by a previous Home Office recruitment campaign called ‘Could You?’
He recalled: “Twenty years ago I had finished my degree and didn’t know what I was going to do for a career. I never had a decent understanding or connection with the police, and definitely didn’t have a positive view, but I remember watching the heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in a national police ad talking about domestic violence.
“I was touched and soon afterwards put in my application to join. As fate would have it, two decades later I now have the opportunity to inspire a new generation of potential recruits to embark on a fantastic career opportunity, through taking part in the new campaign. For me it’s coming full circle and giving back and hopefully I will encourage more people to take this journey.”
After reaching its highest ever headcount at the end of March 2022, of 34,000, (all police officers including part-time) the Met confirmed it wanted to expand further, to 36,500 officers by March 2023.
Taking into account the number of people who will retire and leave, overall recruitment will be close to 4,000 - double the number of officers normally recruited over a year period.
A number of bold steps have been taken to help meet these aspirations, including the temporary lifting of the London residency in February and May’s announcement of financial incentives to recruit and retain officers. During the police uplift programme period, more Met officers have transferred to other police forces than have transferred into the Met.
The increase in the workforce that has already taken place is reflected in the huge variety of different skills, characteristics and backgrounds of existing officers and staff - all bringing their unique strengths and experiences into keeping Londoners safe day in and day out.
The Met is more diverse than it has ever been and is proud to employ more than half of all police officers in England and Wales from under-represented groups.
Current officer strength shows that a total of 16.5% of the Met’s full-time police officers - 5,565 - are of Black, Asian or mixed ethnic heritage and 29.9% of the Met’s officers – 10,068 – are female (correct as of end May 2022).
Many recruits have chosen to join from other professions, and dozens of different ethnic backgrounds are currently represented among employees, including Irish, Indian, Chinese, Cypriot and Black British as well as many other mixed ethnic heritage groups.
For more information, visit www.met.police.uk/careers
