Special constable (volunteer police officer)

Although there are no formal educational requirements, you’ll need to have a reasonable standard of English if you are to succeed during the selection process.

You must be 17 or older when applying to be a Met special constable (MSC). Applicants who are 17 will progress through the recruitment process but will not be able to take up appointment as a special constable until reaching the age of 18. The upper age limit for applicants is 63 allowing for completion of the probationary period (two years).

Special constables may serve until their 65th birthday without restriction. They must then apply for annual extensions of service subject to medical assessment of fitness until age 70 which is the compulsory retirement age.

You must declare any other employment or business interests that you intend to maintain. We will need to check that these are not in conflict with working in the Met in any way.

Ideally, you shouldn't have a criminal conviction or cautions record.

If you do have one, eligibility will depend on the age and nature of the offence. We're unable to confirm whether your convictions record will affect your application before you apply, but will determine this from the full and confidential information provided during the recruitment and selection process.

If you don't tell us about any cautions, investigations or criminal convictions that may be linked to you at an early stage, your application could be refused simply because you weren't open and up front, whereas it might have been accepted if you were. If in any doubt, disclose the information.

You must meet the police eyesight standards agreed by the College of Policing.

It’s important that you’re not under pressure from un-discharged debts or liabilities and that you can manage loans and debts sensibly.

Whilst our health and fitness requirements are not nearly as demanding as is often assumed, you will need to be able to cope with the physical and mental demands of the job. Certain medical conditions may prevent this. To find out more, please download our Fit for the Job guide.

If you undertake some form of regular exercise, there should be no issue with meeting the physical requirements in the fitness test. This means achieving level 5.4 on the 'bleep test'. Start preparing now by watching our YouTube videos for tips. 

Membership of groups or organisations that contradict our competencies, values or ethics and our responsibility to promote race equality, are prohibited. The Met won't accept applications from anyone who is, or has been, a member of groups and organisations including, but not limited to, the British National Party (BNP), National Front, Combat 18 or similar.

If you’re from outside the UK, it’s essential that you have indefinite leave to enter or to remain in the UK.  Due to changes in legislation, members of the European Economic Area (EAA) are now required to have ILR or EU settled status by 30 June 2021.

Your application will not be accepted if you have previously applied unsuccessfully to the Met in the last six months.

There are a number of jobs that are considered incompatible with the role of a special constable. To be sure that your current employment will not prevent your application from proceeding, please check our precluded occupations list.

You must not be in a precluded occupation at the time you submit your application.

For special constables there's no requirement for you to meet the London residency criteria. However, you should have resided in the UK for three consecutive years immediately prior to application. If you’ve lived abroad due to serving in the British armed forces or on UK government service, you’re still considered to have been a resident in the UK.

This contradicts everything the role of a police officer stands for. If you are currently using any illegal drugs, this will rule you out of the recruitment process automatically. You will be required to undertake a substance misuse test as part of the pre-employment checks in the recruitment process.

If you have any previous drugs related cautions or convictions, please see the 'criminal convictions' dropdown on this page.

This tattoo policy is new from October 2018, and significantly different to our previous policy. If you weren't eligible to work with us in the past because of your tattoos, you may now be able to work for the Met and consider applying for roles.

Some tattoos will stop you working for the Met. You can't work for the Met if you have tattoos on:

• The sides and front of your neck above the collar line.
• Your face.

You will be allowed to work for the Met if you have tattoos:

• On your hands.
• On the back of your neck.
• Below your collar line.
• On your ears.
• Behind your ears.

Sometimes we'll require you to cover up these tattoos for policing events such as state funerals or ceremonial events.

Even if you have tattoos in the allowed places, we can't allow you to join the Met if any of the tattoos could be considered:

• Discriminatory.
• Offensive.
• Violent.
• Rude.
• Lewd.
• Crude.
• Racist.
• Sexist.
• Sectarian.
• Homophobic.
• Intimidating.
• Political in nature.

Tattoos like this aren't compatible with the values of the Met.

If you have larger visible tattoos on your hands or back of the neck that cannot be easily covered, or are not discreet, then this could still be disqualified during the recruitment process. Decisions regarding appropriateness of tattoos are made at the sole discretion of the Met.

If you apply for a role with us, we'll ask you to declare information about your tattoos. When we meet we'll check that you comply with our tattoo policy.

This won't be an intrusive check, but we will need to see your tattoos and talk to you about them as part of the recruitment process.