Women in policing

My name is PC Sam Evans, and I'm a student officer with Lincolnshire Police.

I decided I wanted to join the police when my mum told me I wasn't ever going to be a princess.

I considered the armed forces, but my parents are emergency service staff so it made more sense, being brought up on polished boots and shift work, it seemed to fit my lifestyle as it was.

I'm currently a student officer so I'm going through my 21 weeks training to become an operational police officer and when that's done, I will be stationed at Lincoln on response.

Prior to this, I have been a civilian volunteer.  I've also been a PCSO and I've worked in force control room as a call taker and controller and I've also served as a Special Constable.

I love the feeling that when people are at their absolute worst we can try and make it easier.  We can't always fix it all of the time, but we can try to make it easier, and just being there when people are going through something, it's quite heartwarming that you have that responsibility.

I'm really proud that, throughout my time with Lincolnshire Police whether it be in the control room, or neighbourhoods as PCSO, or as a special constable or now as a regular police officer, that when people are going through the hardest time in their lives, from a crime they've reported or an incident they've been involved in, that we can just try and make that a little bit easier for them, and comfort them in any way we can.

As a woman in policing my experience is how I would expect the man to be treated. The only difference I've found is that I have to pull my chair forward in the cars because my feet don't tend to reach the pedals.

Hi I'm Sarah Capes and I'm a police constable with Lincolnshire Police.

I work as a forensic collision investigator and I've been in the police for 15 years.

I joined the police because it was something I wanted to do since I was a teenager and I did my work experience with Nottinghamshire Police and it made my mind up that's what I wanted to do.

I moved to Lincoln and joined Lincolnshire Police in 2006.

I attend the scenes of serious or fatal injury collisions within the whole of Lincolnshire. I will gather all the available evidence and record it and later down the line I will compile a report for the court for either the coroner or CPS.

When I attend scenes I will look at evidence such as tyre marks, scratches, gouges, furrows.  I'll look at the seat belts to see if they were being worn at the time of the collision. I will look at the damage profiles of the vehicles, and everything else that I can record at the scene to help me find the causational factors surrounding that collision.

I am proud of having a career that I really enjoy. When you have a job that you get enjoyment out of it affects your personal life in a positive way.

I can say that after 15 years that being female in Lincolnshire police has never been a negative thing and it's never stopped me from achieving whatever career path that I wish to follow.

My name is Sarah Constantine, I'm the neighbourhood police inspector for Wolds.

I joined Lincolnshire Police and the Neighbourhood Policing Team and part of the reason I do this role is because I really like being out and part of the team and the community and being able to make a difference in people's lives.

It's something that I'd always wanted to do.  It's a dream of mine to have been a police officer. I've been a police officer for 29 years. When I joined Lincolnshire police I started, as most people do, on what was then, Response, which was a fantastic team experience, and all my line managers and people and colleagues that I worked with really made sure that I had every opportunity to be the best that I could be.

From that I moved into CID and that was a really interesting career choice where I got to work on some really complicated cases and work with some really good investigators.

From there I moved into public protection and the reason I moved into public protection with the fact that when you've got somebody who's had the most horrendous life experience, I wanted to be the person who was just there to help pick up the pieces.

I left the public protection arena after many years working there and went into neighbourhood policing, which again, what an opportunity to get out there amongst the community and work with those people that really need our help.

Lincolnshire Police are like my extended family. I've seen a lot of change over that time.  There's been a lot of fantastic people to work with and I've really had the support and encouragement to do all the things that I wanted to do.  Any ideas or ambitions that I'd had people would support me to do that.

And this is my dream job in Lincolnshire Police, looking at this fantastic scenery out here. What a privilege to work here to be part of the team.

I'm proud of the difference that the team that I make. Today we've been dealing with a high-risk missing person and it was great to get out there with the team and locate them before they came to any serious harm, and those are the kinds of jobs that I like to do on a daily basis or be involved in, and know that we can actually make a difference to people's lives.

I absolutely love being a cop and as I've gone through the ranks in policing over the years, what I have found is that I'm really curious and hungry to want to go on to the next rank or the next job, or the next experience, and that's what propelled me into being an Assistant Chief Constable. 

I wanted to do something which was socially rewarding, and not just working in the private industry that I'd been working in for the previous seven years, where it was all about costs and margins and profits, etc. I wanted to do something where I was making a difference to people's lives and that's why I got into policing.

I was watching Morse and all of the old investigative programmes but I also knew local officers who I engaged with and they were doing some fabulous work like stake-outs when they were getting a tip off about a burglary going to happen and all of that sounded really exciting.

The areas I am in charge of are crime (CID), the Force Control Room, regional work, Central Ops which includes control room but also firearms, dogs and roads policing.

You can have a really great career if you want it to be a great career.  There's a huge amount of opportunities out there.

I've done all sorts of different jobs.  I've done uniform, CID, undercover, international work, local work, negotiating; all sorts of different jobs that I never thought I'd be able to do.

I think I'm probably most proud of how I help other people achieve their ambitions, so whether it's setting up support networks, such as with the Women's Inclusive Network, or SMILE (Supporting Minorities in Lincolnshire through Engagement), or other support groups or helping people just enjoy the job that they're doing, and removing some of the barriers that are making it difficult for them.

My name is Fran Harrod, I'm the Boston Neighbourhood Policing Inspector.

I was working down in London in 2005 National Portrait Gallery, and there was a recruitment campaign at the time called the 'Could You?' campaign and I looked at some of the work that I was doing in the job that I had there and I looked at the advert, and I thought 'could I?' Yeah, maybe I could, so I applied to join the police.

I think pretty much anyone that joins the police will say that the prime motivation is to help other people and to be the person that runs towards the kind of stuff that everybody else is running away from.

And there's nothing more rewarding than knowing that you've done a good day's work and helped people.

Working in the Neighbourhood Policing Team in Boston is amazing because we have ownership of a wonderful town. We work with so many partners to try and make it a better place and to solve the problems there are in Boston, and it's just so much fun to come to work with my current team.

This community is fabulous. The people that we work with as partners are fabulous, and it's just a really rewarding place to work.

Lincolnshire Police is a really, really inclusive force. I have never been prevented from doing anything because I'm female, either by the organisation or by the jobs that I find in front of me or the situations that I face.  We all get on together as one big team.

I think I'm most proud about the lives that I've been able to change just by doing the job that I do. I've had people come up to me as young adults saying that they're really grateful for the time that I spent with them and the help that I gave them when they were younger, particularly in schools, and to know that you have changed people's lives for the better is something that makes you feel so proud.