Federation member supporting the West Mercia public in police staff and Special roles

18 September 2023

Mitchell Flavell has spoken about how he combines his day job as a member of West Mercia Police staff with being a Special Constable in his own time.

Mitchell is a speed enforcement officer in the Force’s roads safety team and has been trained as a Special for six months.

And he says that one role helps with his understanding of the other.

Mitchell said: “Working as a police staff member and as a Special helps in both roles. There’s a lot of a crossover between the two.

“As a Special do a fair bit of work on traffic, if I can, which fits really nicely with the role for enforcement.

Special Constable Mitchell Flavell.

"We don’t just do speeding, we do other sorts of road offences as well so the two roles overlap really nicely.”

Mitchell started his training in October and went live in February. He said he fulfilled an ambition of being a police officer when he became a Special.

And he said one of the reasons was to give back to the Force for the way it had supported him in his staff role.

Mitchell said: “I applied for the police when I was a lot younger and didn’t get through, unfortunately.

“I went away and did a number of other different jobs before getting a job in the police as a member of staff.

“The Force was absolutely fantastic with me in all ways during my employment and I thought it would be good to give a little bit back and to be able to achieve my goal from younger of being a police officer.”

He added: “It’s fantastic. I absolutely love it. The teams I work with are incredibly supportive.

“It’s been a really steep learning curve, but I really enjoy the job.”

Mitchell said he jumped at the chance of becoming a member of West Mercia Police Federation because of the protection it offers him in both his day job and in his work as a Special.

A change in the law last year meant that Specials can now join the Federation’s 139,000-strong membership.

Mitchell was one of the first to sign up to the West Mercia Federation when he joined last week (Tuesday 12 September).

And he said it was because of the advice and support he would receive from the Federation if anything was to go wrong.

He said: “The reason I joined the Federation as soon as I could was because of the reassurance that there’s some sort of support and back up there, particularly as I’m a staff member as well.

“Any sort of incident as a Special Constable, that could have an impact on my job as a member of staff.

“In that respect, I’m in pretty much the same position as a police officer where I could actually lose my job for something that happens when I’m out there policing.

“It’s that legal support, that advice from the reps as well to stop it happening in the first place and, if anything does happen for whatever reason, be it my fault or not, that support is there for me.

“I do feel more comfortable that I have got the Federation behind me.”