Eight exam-style questions for the police situational judgement test. Free, no sign-up, about ten minutes. You’ll get your score, every right answer with the reasoning, and a score card to share.
Courage
You are a student officer on foot patrol. During your refreshment break you go into a small café on the high street to buy a coffee. When you try to pay, the owner waves your money away and says, “No charge for the police. You lot keep this street safe and I like having you around.” There is a queue of customers behind you, watching.
We support and inspire
You are one of six officers carrying out house-to-house enquiries after a serious assault. The officer in charge, Sergeant Reid, gave each of you two streets. You finish yours an hour before the end of the shift and have recorded the addresses where nobody answered. The other officers still have several streets left.
We are innovative and open-minded
You are a student officer. Your team has just moved from paper forms to an app on work phones for recording incidents, and your inspector has said that all incidents must now go on the app. You find it slower than paper at first. Several experienced colleagues say the app is a waste of time, are still using paper forms, and tell you to do the same.
Public service
You work on a police station front counter. Mr Kwame Asante asks when he will get back his mobile phone, which officers kept as evidence after he was assaulted three weeks ago. You do not know, and the officer in the case is on rest days until Thursday. A colleague says, “Just tell him two weeks. That usually keeps them happy.”
We analyse critically
You are a police community support officer (PCSO) on a neighbourhood team. A post in a local community social media group says a man in a white van tried to lure a child near the primary school yesterday afternoon. It has been shared hundreds of times, and the comments now describe several different vans and men. While you are on foot patrol near the school, two parents stop you and ask what the police are doing about it. You have not heard of any report.
We take ownership
You joined a police records team as a member of staff a month ago. Your manager, Grace, is very busy and hasn’t given you any feedback yet. You aren’t sure whether you are doing some tasks the right way. Your first formal review is in five months.
We collaborate
You are a PCSO on foot patrol. A shop owner tells you he has just installed a camera that covers the alley behind his shop. You know that offenders in a recent series of burglaries in your area have used that alley to get away. The burglaries are being investigated by officers on another team, who work different hours from you.
Respect and empathy
You work on the front counter at a police station. Mr Dennis Hartley, who is in his seventies, comes in to report that his bicycle was stolen from outside his flat overnight. There is no CCTV and he has no idea who took it. The waiting area is quiet. A colleague tells you quietly that bike thefts are meant to be reported online and that you should send him home to do it. Mr Hartley says he does not use the internet and wanted to speak to someone in person.
Your score · Police applicant (SJT)
0/8
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01 · Courage ·
Which is the most effective response?
Right answer: B. Thank the owner, explain politely that you cannot accept free drinks because of your job, and pay.
This tests Courage: keeping professional boundaries with the people you serve, and keeping the public’s confidence through the way you conduct yourself. A gift offered because of your role can create, or look like, an obligation to give something back. Good looks like turning the offer down politely, explaining why, and paying, so the goodwill is kept without any suggestion of favour.
A (Counterproductive): it links a free gift to a promise of extra police attention. That is exactly the kind of favour-for-favour arrangement that damages trust, and the customers watching would see it.
B (Most effective): it is courteous and clear. The owner’s goodwill is kept, the reason is explained, and everyone watching sees that officers pay their way.
C (Ineffective): it avoids a moment of awkwardness but still accepts a gift given because of your role. Small, repeated freebies can build an expectation that the giver will be treated differently.
D (Effective): paying keeps the professional boundary, which matters most. Avoiding the café is unnecessary, though, and misses the chance to explain to the owner why officers do not accept free goods.
02 · We support and inspire ·
Which is the most effective response?
Right answer: D. Give Sergeant Reid your results and offer to take some of the remaining streets.
This tests We support and inspire: understanding how your task contributes to the team’s goal, helping others to deliver their objectives and making efficient use of your time where it adds most value.
A (Ineffective): your part is done but the team’s task is not. The paperwork can usually wait, while the enquiries, and the investigation with them, are slowed.
B (Effective): you are helping where help is needed, but the officer in charge does not know where you are, may want you elsewhere and may not get your results in the right place.
C (Ineffective): it wastes an hour the team could have used, and nobody knows you are free to help.
D (Most effective): the officer in charge gets your results and can decide where your help is most useful, so the remaining streets are shared sensibly.
03 · We are innovative and open-minded ·
Which is the most effective response?
Right answer: C. Use the app, ask confident users for tips, and report any real faults to the team that is running it.
This tests We are innovative and open-minded: good practice is to be open to new ways of working and adapt flexibly to change, give a new system a fair try, learn how to use it well, and feed back genuine problems so it can be improved.
A (Counterproductive): it ignores the instruction to use the app and joins in resisting the change before giving it a fair chance. Incidents kept on paper may also be missing from the system when others need them.
B (Ineffective): it is a half-way measure that creates two sets of records, makes information harder to find and still avoids learning the app properly.
C (Most effective): it uses the new system as instructed, learns from people who are already confident with it, and sends real faults to the people who can fix them.
D (Effective): using the app and noting problems is positive, but waiting for a team meeting is slower than going to the people running the app, and it misses the chance to learn from confident users now.
04 · Public service ·
Which is the most effective response?
Right answer: B. Say you don’t know, and that you will message the officer in the case asking them to ring him on Thursday.
This tests Public service: being open and honest with the people you serve about what you know and what you do not, even when that is uncomfortable, and giving clear, accurate information. Making up an answer to end a conversation is neither open nor honest.
A (Effective): it is honest and gives him a route to an answer, but it puts the chasing onto him when you could have passed the message on yourself.
B (Most effective): it is honest, and he knows exactly what will happen next and when. Telling him what you have done also means he is not left wondering whether anyone knows he asked.
C (Ineffective): it is not untrue, but it gives him nothing: no explanation, no timescale and no idea whether anyone knows he is asking.
D (Counterproductive): it is a guess presented as fact. If the phone is not back in two weeks he has been misled, and he will trust what the police tell him less in future.
05 · We analyse critically ·
Which is the most effective response?
Right answer: A. Check whether anything has been reported, then brief your sergeant on what you find and on the post.
This tests We analyse critically: good practice is to establish the facts before acting, separating what has actually been reported from what is being repeated online, and getting accurate information to the people who can decide what to do.
A (Most effective): it checks the claim against what the police actually know and gives your sergeant both the facts and the level of community concern, so any response is based on evidence rather than rumour.
B (Ineffective): it is well meant, but it acts on a vague and changing description without checking whether anything happened. It does nothing to establish the facts and gives the parents a reassurance you cannot back up.
C (Effective): going back to first-hand sources helps separate fact from rumour, and anything a parent saw may be useful. On its own, though, it does not check police records or bring in the team who can respond.
D (Counterproductive): it presents as fact something you have not confirmed, commits the team to patrols nobody has agreed, and speaks for the police from a personal account. It may also make the rumour spread further.
06 · We take ownership ·
Which is the most effective response?
Right answer: A. Ask Grace for a short meeting to get feedback on your work so far and what to focus on.
This tests We take ownership: seeking feedback to understand the quality of your work, rather than waiting for it to come to you, and asking for guidance when you are unsure.
A (Most effective): you take the initiative, respect that Grace is busy by keeping it short, and get feedback from the person responsible for your work.
B (Effective): it is a sensible, practical way to check your work and learn. An experienced colleague may not know exactly what Grace expects, so it doesn’t fully replace speaking to her.
C (Counterproductive): complaining behind Grace’s back blames her for something you could sort out yourself, and may damage relationships in the team.
D (Ineffective): it is passive. If you are doing something wrong, it could carry on for five months before anyone tells you.
07 · We collaborate ·
Which is the most effective response?
Right answer: A. Email the investigating officers his details and what the camera covers, and ask him to keep any footage.
This tests We collaborate: working with other teams towards a shared goal and sharing useful information promptly with the people who need it, rather than working in a silo, even when the case is not yours.
A (Most effective): the investigators get the information straight away from the person who heard it, and asking the owner to keep his recordings protects possible evidence while they follow it up.
B (Ineffective): the information stays with you. It only helps if you happen to deal with a burglary there yourself, and the investigators never hear about it.
C (Effective): the information is shared, but it relies on someone else passing it on accurately and adds delay. It is better than keeping it to yourself but less reliable than telling the investigators directly.
D (Counterproductive): it turns away a helpful member of the public, makes the police look disjointed, and the information may never reach the investigators.
08 · Respect and empathy ·
Which is the most effective response?
Right answer: D. Take the report from him at the counter, explain what happens next and give him the crime reference number.
This tests Respect and empathy: providing a service that takes account of each person’s circumstances and tailoring your response to their needs. Online reporting is there for people who want to use it, not a reason to turn away someone who has come in person and told you he does not use the internet.
A (Effective): the report will be taken and he does not have to go online, but it adds a delay and a second contact for something you could deal with while he is standing in front of you.
B (Ineffective): it ignores what he has just told you and pushes the job back onto him and his family. The theft may never be reported, and he leaves feeling the police would not help.
C (Counterproductive): it discourages a victim from reporting a crime and damages his confidence in the police. Reports help build a picture of where and when thefts happen, even when there is no suspect.
D (Most effective): the station is quiet, so you can deal with it now. He gets the service he came for, knows what will happen next and has a crime reference number, which he may need for an insurance claim.
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