“Every day is a different opportunity for a new challenge.”

“It’s the care, support and service to the victim that is the most important thing and keeping you and your colleagues safe.”
The variety, reward and challenge of response policing is something that drew one Derbyshire officer to the frontline 👮♂️
From a young age, PC Harry Mehmet had thought of a policing career, having looked up to family who were in the police, and being proud of them. Wanting to try something different, he went to university, studied Clinical Psychology and was working as an Assistant Psychologist. However, the draw to become an officer and the intrigue was still there.
Speaking about his experience for the national Response Policing Week, Harry said: “I was looking to advance my psychology career, but I began to wonder if I’d made a mistake, as I still had that itch and I wanted to know what it was like to pursue a career in the police. Not long after that, I decided to go for it.”
Harry joined on the Detective Constable route, but as all officers do, had to complete time on Response. Having loved the role, and seeing it as a great development opportunity, he decided to stay.
“The value of response is that it’s always different day-to-day. Every day is a different opportunity for a new challenge.” He added, “You could be responding to an abandoned 999 call which results in safeguarding, or on the other end of the spectrum you could be attending a really serious incident.”
Responding to incidents and progressing investigations does, of course, come with some testing moments. Harry says that, for him, wanting to deliver for victims means it can be difficult when the conclusion is different to what the team hoped for.
“Sometimes you will see people at their best, deliver a really great outcome for them and see what the role can do and sometimes you will be dealing with difficult situations that may stick with you.” He explains, “It’s about detaching from that and know that you’re doing the role for the right reasons and remembering why you’re doing it – that’s what helps me process things that are difficult.”
“Another challenge is knowing when you’ve done enough. It’s very difficult sometimes to think that you’ve done everything you can, but you wish it was a better outcome for the people involved. It doesn’t stop us from trying our best to get it through, though.”