Community Support Officer
Northumbria Police

Julie J

0.00.00 Hi, my name’s Julie J and I’m a Community Support Officer with the Northumbria Police. As a Community Support Officer primarily I’m out on the streets, high visual patrols, engage in the community finding out what their issues are and helping them with all sorts of things from parking issues, anti social behaviour, working with a multi agency partnerships like councils, schools, social services, anything that I’m required to do really.

0.00.30 Whilst at school there was one particular teacher that did inspire me and that was Miss Rawling, she was my history teacher and I just couldn’t wait to get to history lessons. She was fun. She made it interesting. When it was the end of the lesson I just like oh no, I really enjoyed that. And because of that it reflected in my marks and I got an A for history and I’ve had a, well a passion for history ever since.

0.01.00 Believe it or not Miss Rawling’s still at the school that I was in and she’s now teaching my children, who are as inspired as I was. I did my GCSEs and it was very successful and I achieved a lot for a basics of education. I then went onto do A Levels in the sixth form and after about a year I felt I was ready to find a job or maybe go to university or college, something a little bit more less structured.

0.01.30 So I actually quit partway through my A Levels to become an Ambulance Cadet. I’ve always wanted to be in the Police Force and I got a lovely letter saying when I had applied at 17, I was too young and to go back in a couple of years time. So my dad was in the ambulance service and so I decided ooh, I’ll jump ship, I’d have a couple of years with the ambulance service and then I’ll go back in at the Police Force hopefully. That didn’t happen because I thoroughly enjoyed the ambulance service while I did a two year cadetship with them which was very interesting.

0.02.00 And then as life takes you, marriage, children, so I finished that to raise a family and then after a bit of a break I went to live in Sydney, Australia, which was a huge, huge move as you can imagine and I actually worked for Estee Lauder and I got lots of rewards from that job as well. Unfortunately Sydney didn’t work out for me. I missed home. I missed my family.

0.02.30 It was quite isolating and I came back here still with a passion for joining the Police Force, and now of course my dream of being a Police Officer is now really in sight. In this particular job you do get a work / life balance but you have to be flexible because of crimes that may happen in your area or you may actually be at an incident that runs on, so there’s got to be a certain amount of flexibility, but I do have, you can, if you’re well organised, have a good work and home life balance. My parents have been a huge influence on my life.

0.03.00 Their work ethic has always been incredible. Work hard and you’ll get what you deserve at the end of it. And they’re living proof of that. My mum’s retired as is my dad. My dad his own business. My mum worked and when she needed more money to finance things for me and my sisters, she would work at night time and if she had to, then she’d take us with her and I thought wow, looking as a mother myself how difficult that would have been.

0.03.30 It’s been very fulfilling. I think for me to be a Police Officer now, I’ve gone through all of this, it can only be good for me, all these life experiences and qualifications that I’ve gained. But the most important thing is that I had a goal and it took me 23 years to get to my goal, and I wouldn’t change anything. It’s been a very interesting journey and I’ve enjoyed all my jobs and made the most of it, but it’s fulfilling at age 40 to get where you really wanted to be.

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