First Specials cohort celebrate ETM course completion

Our first cohort of Special Constables are celebrating after successfully completing an emergency traffic management (ETM) course.

The 12 officers took part in the training last month which aims at ensuring they are able to work safely on fast roads across the county.

The course takes a full day to complete and involves classroom learning as well as a practical assessment in a live environment.

Officers are shown how to use rolling roads, cones, lane management and carriageway systems so they can assist in traffic-related incidents such as closures and blocks on fast roads.

A fast road is defined as one where a vehicle can travel at 40 miles per hour or more.

Sergeant Pete Harris, roads policing unit supervisor, who co-created the course, said: “The course is a derivative of what we deliver to our roads policing officers in their training.

“We recognised that we could do more to train our officers to safely work on fast roads, where motorists can legally travel at 40 miles per hour or over.

“Upon the conclusion of this course, officers are trained to safely deploy ETM on our fast roads around the county.

“The course got some really positive feedback and we are now looking to roll out this training across our local policing teams with a view to have successfully trained around 300 officers by the end of October.

“We hope that by June 2025, every single response officer is trained in deploying ETM.”

To find out more about training opportunities with Staffordshire Police, visit: Why Work For Us | Staffordshire Police.