Officer promotion
1. Overview
Officer promotion is important to the Met and there are many opportunities for high performers to progress to the next rank. We run promotion processes from sergeant through to chief superintendent annually and all of our processes are open to both internal and external officers. More information on when our processes are run can be found in the ‘how to join’ section.
Police ranks
The Commissioner of the Met holds the highest rank within policing in the UK. The force rank structure for the Met is as follows:
- Commissioner
- Deputy Commissioner
- Assistant commissioner
- Deputy assistant commissioner
- Commander
- Chief superintendent and detective chief superintendent
- Superintendent and detective superintendent
- Chief inspector and detective chief inspector
- Inspector and detective inspector
- Police sergeant and detective sergeant
- Police constable and detective constable
Promotion process
The majority of our promotion processes have a similar approach. They will likely involve:
- An expression of interest
- A competency-based application form
- An assessment centre, usually including an interview and some interactive exercises
All of our processes are assessed against the national Competency and Values Framework (CVF).
If successful at assessment centre, candidates will be asked to complete pre-employment checks. Once finalised, candidates will be placed onto a select list and will be promoted to the rank they applied for when a role becomes vacant. Candidates will be asked to provide preferences for posting. However, candidates will be posted based on the operational needs of the Met.