A former firefighter is back in the blue light services after becoming a police officer.

Lee Shaw, retired from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service as a watch manager last year after 30 years’ service. He said he had decided to join the ranks at Nottinghamshire Police because he wanted to continue helping people in their communities and responding to emergencies.

He was among 19 new recruits who passed out as police constables in a special ceremony at the force’s Arnold headquarters, having completed a 20-week training programme.

The 50-year-old will be based at Mansfield Police Station, where his son Charlie has worked as a police officer for the past five years.

Lee said he was happy to be following in his son’s footsteps – although the opportunity to work alongside him was not the reason he decided to don the police uniform.

“The reason I joined the fire service and the reason I joined the police is exactly the same – I want to help people and make our communities safer,” he said.

“When people are having difficult times and facing emergencies I want to go and help them. That is the same whether I’m a police officer or a fire officer.”

Lee joined Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service in 1991 as a firefighter before going on to be promoted to crew manager and then watch manager.

He undertook numerous roles including a trainer at the fire service’s training centre in Boughton, where he trained up the county’s next firefighters and as an officer in charge of a specialist rescue unit.

Having clocked up 30 years at the fire service, he is well-equipped to handle the sort of emergency situations that police officers face every day.

“Over the years, I dealt with many difficult incidents and been to some challenging and tragic scenes, whether that be house fires, traffic collisions or water rescues.

“I have worked in collaboration with the police and ambulance service and have some understanding of what to expect when I’m called out to an emergency as a police officer.

“I enjoyed working for the fire service but had to retire having done my 30 years and it was a question of what shall I do next, as I’m too young to retire properly.

“I thought policing is a similar role with transferrable skills, so why not give it a go?”

Much of the training has taken place at Nottinghamshire Police’s headquarters in Arnold, which is now shared with Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service following the recent opening of a state-of-the-art building that includes shared office space, a new control room, a sports hall, gymnasium and canteen.

Lee said the training programme had been excellent but confessed he had found it slightly strange for a couple of reasons.

“The building is shared with the fire service so I have seen some familiar faces! And having been a trainer for a number of years, having the roles reversed for the past 20 weeks was challenging for me as I’m normally on the other side of the lecture room.

“That said, the training was really good.”

Joining Lee in the classroom was fellow new recruit Laura Marriott, who after 15 years working for Nottinghamshire Police as a staff member has now switched to life on the beat as a neighbourhood cop in Sutton.

The 40-year-old mum-of-two said: “For the first 14 years, I was responsible for processing out of court disposals. It was mostly dealing with first time offenders for things such as shop thefts, minor assaults and lower value criminal damage investigations. These are things that could be dealt with out of court with things like community resolution and cautions.

“Then for my last year I was an officer in the Managed Incident Team, which handle slow time investigations. I didn’t have any arrest powers but I’d conduct interviews and take statements. I’d then process offenders either out of court or by a report for summons.

“Being around police officers all my career inspired me to become one myself. My children are older now and the time felt right to take the opportunity now that my children don’t need me so much.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know my neighbourhood and seeing what the problems are and seeing how I can help. I’m a people person and am approachable. I’m not scared to get stuck into things. We’ve learnt a lot in training and I feel ready to start putting it all into practice.”

The passing out parade was the third to take place this year at Nottinghamshire Police, with officer numbers at the force now at their highest levels since 2011.

The force reached 2,380 officers by March 2022 – meaning it met its Uplift target a year early.

Operation Uplift has also seen the force make great strides in becoming more representative of the community it serves, with the Home Office commending Nottinghamshire Police after figures revealed the force had recruited a greater proportion of officers from black and minority ethnic backgrounds than any other force in England and Wales.

Furthermore, the force now has more female officers than ever before. A total of 35 per cent of police officers in Nottinghamshire are women – up from 32 per cent in March 2020 with most new intakes seeing a near 50/50 split.

Chief Constable Craig Guildford said: “Not only do we have more police officers than we’ve had in over a decade, we’ve also got a workforce that is increasingly more representative of Nottinghamshire. These new officers are all going into front line visible posts and will quickly be preventing and detecting crime across all of our neighbourhoods.

“We are very happy that another 19 recruits have joined our ranks today and I wish them all well as they start a new career in policing.”