Response officer’s job is ‘wide, varied and unpredictable’

3 July 2024

The first to respond to an emergency, the first to confront a criminal, and the first to speak a victim, a response officer’s job is wide, varied and unpredictable.

Response officers serve on the frontline and regularly put themselves in harm’s way to protect the public.

PC Dan Wiltshire likened response policing to the engine room of the police service.

Dan, a Dyfed Powys Police Federation member, said: “Response is very much the fundamentals of policing.

“If we think of the police Force as a vehicle, then response is the engine.

“We are often the first to go to a job, which could be anything, and then from our initial work, it then branches off to the different departments.”

Response Policing Week

Dan is shining a light on frontline policing for the fourth national Response Policing Week of Action, which took place last week (Monday 24 - Sunday 30 June).

Response policing week provides a chance to highlight the difficult and demanding work that response officers do.

And it’s been an interesting week as temperatures across the Force area have soared.

Dan said: “In the direct heat, it’s not easy with the body armour we wear and the dark uniform.

PC Dan Wiltshire (right) with his colleague PC Alex James.

“And as the heat rises, we tend to get more calls. “June and July and the warmer months are often quite busy in comparison to January when it’s cold, wet and dark.

“People being out in the sun, the longer nights and staying out later, people drinking and the problems associated with that, and we get an increase in anti-social behaviour.”

Dan fulfilled a childhood ambition when he became a response officer a little over two and a half years ago.

Learning

“I’ve always wanted to be a police officer,” he said. “It’s a lot to take in initially.

“We have a lot of policies and procedures in place that you have to know, but I enjoy every aspect of learning.

“And you’re continuing to learn on a day-to-day basis.”

Dan added: “I love the fact that every day is different.

“No two days are the same, you really don’t know what is in store when you arrive for work.

“It gives you the chance to do things that you couldn’t do in any other role.”