Response Policing: “You go home feeling like you’ve made an impact”

As a response officer, every day comes with meeting new people, navigating new challenges and using your skills to help the team.

This is something that PC Ray Mwatati has seen over his two-and-a-half years in the role. Ray, who now responds to incidents all over Glossop and the High Peak, was always interested in policing and studied it at uni. However, even before this, he was already helping out the community – lending a hand in a local nursing home kitchen.

He said: “I started out in the kitchen at a nursing home – that was my first ever job. Then I moved to university, I was doing Policing Studies. I’d always had an interest in policing, and it was always the route for me.”

After university, Ray joined the Ministry of Defence Police and helped deliver specialist policing at various sensitive defence sites across the UK.

“I worked as an AFO – a firearms officer – protecting sites and national infrastructure. I enjoyed that role but just wanted a bit more in policing - I wanted to get out there, deal with incidents and respond to the public, so I joined Derbyshire.

“I really enjoy it personally. It’s the ability to know a little bit about everything – whether you’re speaking to members of the public or you’re responding to a violent incident where someone’s being aggressive, and you’ve got to engage with them and deal with that effectively.

“Or it might be that you’re dealing with the victim of a very serious crime and you’re the first person they’re speaking to.

“The best part of the role is the people you work with, the bonds and friendships you create when you’re working, and you go to a number of different incidents.”

When thinking about the type of incidents he has attended, a recent success that stood out for Ray was being able to get a car back to its owner after a burglary.

“Initially we went to a victim’s house who didn’t know their car had been stolen – we’d just had reports that a car was being driven around erratically. We spoke to them and actually two vehicles had been stolen from the address.

“We eventually ended up finding both vehicles – which is amazing because we were able to bring them back. That’s genuinely what we join for and that makes you really happy. Also we were able to arrest the offenders involved in that, so it was a really good job.”

With the successes also come the challenges. Being on hand to the public of Derbyshire often means longer than expected hours – and Ray says he knows how understanding loved ones at home have to be when shifts overrun.

“There’s certainly challenges – the hours that you do are difficult and can have a bit of an impact at home. It’s important you have good communication with family and partners,” he said. “The force and our supervisors do their best, but I think it’s part of the role, you’re going have times where you’re a couple of hours late off.

"However, it’s a role that’s accepting – everyone’s got skills and knowledge that is effective and helpful in policing. It’s one of those roles that you could do 30 years in a different career and still want to do it – it’s always in the back of your mind.

“To anyone interested, I’d just say try it out. It’s challenging, you have to adapt, but it’s a really good role if you want to develop yourself and genuinely go home feeling like you’ve made an impact on people’s lives.”

To find out more about the role, visit our dedicated careers page.