When speaking to undergraduates, we often hear assumptions about who policing is for. Maybe someone who always knew they wanted to be a police officer. Or someone whose degree pointed towards the police.
The reality is that there is no single path into policing.
More than half (59%) of participants in our latest cohort said they had never considered a career in policing until they heard about Police Now. Their journeys into the profession are as varied as the communities they serve, bringing different experiences, perspectives and skills that help them succeed in the role.
For PC Nick Beresford, a neighbourhood officer with Hertfordshire Police, that journey began far from a police station.
Growing up in a military family, Nick spent much of his childhood overseas before returning to the UK. He later studied business and marketing at Sheffield Hallam University and, after graduating, spent two years working as an estate agent while picking up shifts behind a bar.
It quickly became clear it wasn’t the right fit.
“I wasn’t the best estate agent,” admits Nick. “I was probably too honest to be a good salesman.”
Looking for a career with purpose, he came across Police Now, the only national graduate-entry route into policing. In 2023, he successfully completed the recruitment process and started at our residential academy.
One exercise highlighted a skill that would go on to shape his policing career.
“One of my best skills is that I can read personalities. During one of the exercises, I managed to talk the tutors out of a concern-for-welfare situation. They said it was the first time someone had managed it in six years.”
That ability to connect with people has become one of his greatest strengths as a police officer.
Just three months into the role, Nick responded to a call alongside a colleague and found a woman with serious injuries to her arm. She had already lost a significant amount of blood and was drifting in and out of consciousness. While his colleague applied a tourniquet, Nick kept her calm and talking until medical support arrived.
A senior emergency medical technician later praised the rapport he had built with the woman and his “fantastic bedside manner”. The incident led to Nick being nominated for a Royal Humane Society award for lifesaving first aid.
The recognition was one of eight awards and commendations Nick has received in his first few years of service. He believes many of the qualities that helped him earn them were shaped by the experiences he had long before joining the police.
“I have fond memories of travelling and meeting new people, and that ability to connect with new people is really important as a police officer.
“For me, intelligence is the name of the game, and relationships help with that,” he explained.
“I talk to everyone, from people on the street to grandmothers at coffee mornings. One of those relationships helped with a huge drugs operation that was a great success for the force.”
Through Police Now, Nick also completed a month-long secondment with Counter Terrorism Policing, an experience that strengthened his ambition to pursue specialist policing roles.
While he hopes to become a detective in the future, working in serious and organised crime or counter terrorism, for now he is focused on learning as much as possible in neighbourhood policing and tackling issues such as county lines and drug crime.
For Nick, his story challenges common assumptions about who belongs in policing.
“There are lots of good people in the force and not everything has to end in conflict,” he said.
“You have to be courageous, which is something many people don’t think they have, but actually they do.
“You don’t always get lots of thanks, but it’s so rewarding to feel like you are actually helping people.”
Nick’s path from estate agency to policing may not have been an obvious one, but that’s exactly the point. Great police officers come from all kinds of backgrounds. Whether you’ve studied engineering, a foreign language or fine art, or are looking for a career change, the experiences and perspectives you bring could be exactly what your community needs.
