Metropolitan Police Service - Volunteer Cadets

Volunteer Police Cadets (VPC) got a taste of life at the top of the organisation when they shadowed a number of Senior Police Officers including DAC Steve Kavanagh and several Commanders at work for the day.

Cadets also had the opportunity to see life in the political arena with a cadet shadowing the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Ken Livingston, several Assembly Members and one cadet got to meet Brian Paddick on his travels.

Over 40 cadets from across the boroughs took part working in a number of departments and other organisations including the Air Support Unit, CO19, The Job Magazine, Marine unit, Mounted Branch, the Metro newspaper and Transport For London. It allowed the young people in the VPC the opportunity to see first hand how the MPS works and how they work with other partner organisations.

‘Children’s Commissioner’s Takeover Day’ is an National initiative from the Children’s Commissioner, where young people shadow and “takeover” the roles of high-ranking officials, company directors and other high-profile individuals to ensure their voices are heard.

Sutton Deputy Head Cadet Grant Fulker shadowed The Mayor of London Boris Johnson. This is his diary of the day “I attended the Mayor’s Question Time in the Chamber at City Hall which lasted for a couple of hours.

After that Boris took me to meet his team and see his office then took me for lunch and he was asking questions about my life and cadets.

In the afternoon, he attended a meeting about the building of some new buildings in London. I stayed for the presentation and proposal of what was going to be done then I had to leave. While he was in the meeting, I dealt with some correspondence and rang various people confirming/declining Boris's attendance.

Then early evening we headed over to the city where Boris was due to officially open the new office of a finance company on their 'charity day'

Was a lovely day and an honour to have the opportunity to shadow him for the day!“

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: ‘It was great to meet Grant and I hope his time at City Hall gave him a useful insight in politics. I’m a huge supporter of the Volunteer Police Cadets and appreciate all the hard work they do.”

If you or your department would like to take part next year in Take Over Day please email cadets@met.police.uk.