Police Staff
Working for West Yorkshire Police doesn’t have to mean patrolling the streets.
Away from the frontline, police staff work in a huge variety of roles from administration to accountancy, finance to forensics, occupational health to operational support and IT to HR, to help make West Yorkshire a safer place to live, work and visit.
West Yorkshire Police is currently under-represented people from Ethnic Minority backgrounds. If you are from one of these groups, click here for information about opportunities that are available to you.
Examples of Police Staff roles
With over 700 different Police Staff roles, we can’t list all of them but the information below will give you an idea about the different areas and types of roles you could work in.
Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs)
PCSOs provide a visible and reassuring uniformed presence in the community, helping the police to tackle anti-social behaviour and building relationships between the community and the Force. Find out more about the role of PCSO.
Contact Centre
Our Contact Centre team handle all 999 emergency calls as well as 101 non-emergency calls, emails, online crime reports and also deal with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In Contact Centres we have many different roles: emergency call handlers, deployment officers and supervisors and the team are there for those that need them 24/7, 365 days a year. See our current Entry Level Contact Officer roles here.
People Directorate
Our People Directorate supports front-line policing by making the best use of our people resources, providing professional guidance and expertise on HR, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, Health and Wellbeing, and Learning and Development matters. Example roles: Resourcing Assistant, Employee Relations Advisor and People Services Officer.
Finance and Commercial Services
This department is responsible for the preparation and control of the Force’s revenue and capital budgets and includes areas such as procurement, supplies and accounting. Example roles: Customer Service Assistant, Evidence Clerk, Payroll Officer, Purchasing Officer and Strategic Accountants.
Forensic Investigations
Staff within Forensic Investigations use the latest specialist technical skills and scientific techniques to investigate crime and provide forensic evidence to support police investigations.
Intelligence and Analysis
This team focuses on providing high quality, relevant research and analysis support to enable informed decision making and resource deployment.
Digital Policing – IT and Information Management
IT are responsible for maintaining our communications systems, applications and networks.
Read about what's involved in the Application Process here
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
West Yorkshire Police is committed to attracting diversity at all levels of the organisation. We believe that having a more diverse workforce with different experiences and perspectives, who come from a wide range of communities, will allow us to become more effective in preventing and reducing crime, keeping people safe and caring for victims, as well as continue to help develop a more inclusive culture as detailed within the Force Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Strategy.
As part of our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion strategy, we use Positive Action as a tool to help address under representation within our workforce.
Positive Action
West Yorkshire Police uses Positive Action, which is a range of measures and initiatives allowed under the Equality Act 2010, to actively encourage people from communities that are under-represented to bring their talent, experiences and expertise to our organisation when applying to join us. We also use Positive Action to support the retention and progression of our workforce.
Through the use of Positive Action, we do not seek to remove competition, lower standards or give someone an unfair advantage, rather, to help people from under-represented groups overcome disadvantages in competing with other applicants. It is not about lowering standards and giving some people favourable treatment just because of their protected characteristic; it is about getting everyone to the same starting line and still employing and promoting on merit. We treat all applicants fairly and in accordance with current legislation.
So there is no favouritism or advantage for some, but for under-represented groups there is Positive Action to help improve equality at work for both prospective and existing employees.
Find out more about diversity, equality and inclusion.
Page last reviewed December 2022.