Promotion Board Questions
Free Practice Bank

A constable in your team has become withdrawn since a distressing job last week. Nothing has gone wrong yet. What do you do, and what do you deliberately not do?

A board might listen for: Noticing early, a private conversation, listening before advising, wellbeing routes in your force, no diagnosing, a follow-up date, and keeping the team's work covered.

Describe a time you had to change your own style because your usual approach was not working with someone in your team.

A board might listen for: Evidence you read the person, what you changed in your own behaviour, and what the outcome was, rather than blaming the other person.

You overhear a colleague describe a victim in language you think falls below the standards expected. Nobody else reacts. Talk us through what you do.

A board might listen for: Acting rather than letting it pass, a proportionate first step, why timing and setting matter, when it would go to professional standards, and how you would check it has stopped.

Something you supervised and signed off turns out to be wrong, and a victim is affected. Walk us through the first hour and what you do afterwards.

A board might listen for: Telling the right people promptly, protecting the victim first, owning it without excuses, correcting the record, and a lesson for the team that is not a blame exercise.

Your team keeps missing the same file quality standard. Which part of that is yours, and what do you do about it?

A board might listen for: Accountability for the team's output, diagnosing the cause (training, workload, clarity) before acting, agreed standards, and checking that the fix holds.

You are handed a vague task that nobody else wants. How do you decide whether and how to take it on?

A board might listen for: Clarifying purpose, owner and deadline, being honest about capacity, seeing it through, and saying so early if it cannot be done rather than quietly dropping it.

A local authority officer and your team disagree about who should lead on a vulnerable person who keeps coming to notice. How do you resolve it?

A board might listen for: Deciding who is best placed to lead rather than who is obliged to, not assuming, checking what the partner needs, and a shared plan with named actions.

Another shift's sergeant keeps handing your team unfinished work at handover. How do you deal with it?

A board might listen for: A direct conversation first, understanding their pressures, agreeing a handover standard, and escalating only if it does not work, without souring the relationship.

A community member who is openly critical of local policing wants to be heard about a neighbourhood problem. How do you involve them?

A board might listen for: Listening for the concern behind the criticism, being honest about what you can and cannot do, joint problem solving, and following up so promises are kept.

You are opening a shift with a low-morale team facing a heavy demand day. How do you brief them?

A board might listen for: Clear priorities and expectations, how their work fits the wider picture, acknowledging pressure honestly, who is doing what, and how you will support welfare breaks.

A strong performer in your team tells you they want to move to another department, and you cannot easily replace them. What do you do?

A board might listen for: Supporting their development rather than blocking it, an honest conversation about the timing, handover planning, and not making them feel guilty.

You are the first supervisor at a serious and fast-moving incident. What are your first priorities, and how do you lead the people there?

A board might listen for: Safety and life first, a simple shared picture, clear roles, calling for the right support early, looking after those present, and a record of your decisions.

Two officers give you conflicting accounts of how force was used on an arrest. What do you do before you decide anything?

A board might listen for: Securing evidence (body-worn video, records), keeping an open mind, not pre-judging, following your force's process for use of force review, and being fair to both.

You must decide whether to authorise a tactic now, with limited information. How do you decide, and how do you manage the risk of being wrong?

A board might listen for: What you know and do not know, the cost of waiting, proportionality, mitigations, a review point, and recording the rationale.

Your team's stop and search data shows a disproportionate share of stops involving one group. How do you test whether that is a problem?

A board might listen for: Curiosity rather than defensiveness, comparing against a sensible baseline, looking at grounds and outcomes, talking to the team and community, and acting on what you find.

Suggest one low-cost change to how your team works, and say how you would test it before rolling it out.

A board might listen for: A real problem and a real change, a small trial, how you would measure it, who you would involve, and willingness to drop it if it fails.

A constable proposes an idea that carries some risk. How do you respond?

A board might listen for: Taking it seriously, exploring the risk with them, a way to try it safely, authority limits, and how you protect people who try things in good faith.

Tell us about a time you borrowed an approach from outside policing, or from another force, and what happened.

A board might listen for: Where you looked, how you adapted it rather than copying it, the result, and what you would do differently.

You hold a strong personal view on an issue your team is policing, such as a protest. How do you make sure it does not affect your decisions?

A board might listen for: Self-awareness, relying on the law, evidence and the brief, how you would notice bias in yourself and the team, and not pretending you have no views.

You realise a record you completed earlier contains an error that makes your own actions look better. What do you do?

A board might listen for: Correcting it promptly and openly, telling the right person, not minimising, and what this says about the standard you expect of your team.

A member of the public you dealt with says you did not do enough. You think the service was reasonable. How do you respond?

A board might listen for: Listening properly, checking whether they have a point, explaining what you did and why, and offering a route to take it further without defensiveness.

A decision you made at an incident is now being questioned. How do you explain your rationale, and what did you record at the time?

A board might listen for: A clear, honest account of what you knew then, the options you weighed, contemporaneous records, and openness to learning from it.

Sickness and stress figures are rising on one shift pattern in your command. How do you decide whether this is individual or organisational, and what do you do?

A board might listen for: Looking at patterns before conclusions, listening to staff and supervisors, workload and leadership as possible causes, practical changes, and measuring whether they help.

A community group says officers under your command came across as dismissive at a recent event. How do you respond to the group and to your officers?

A board might listen for: Taking the feedback seriously, listening to the group before defending, establishing facts fairly with officers, learning and feeding back what changed.

Describe how you have created, or would create, a culture where your sergeants feel able to challenge you.

A board might listen for: Concrete behaviours rather than slogans, how you respond when challenged, rewarding candour, and what you do with what you hear.

A serious complaint exposes a process failing across your command, not one individual. How do you take ownership without scapegoating anyone?

A board might listen for: Owning the system, fair treatment of individuals, separating learning from discipline, a fix with an owner and a date, and honesty with the complainant.

Describe a decision you made that you would now make differently, and what you did about it.

A board might listen for: A real, non-trivial example, honest reflection, what you did to put it right, and the habit you changed.

You inherit a department where people expect to be blamed when things go wrong. What do you change in your first three months?

A board might listen for: Visible behaviour from you, how you handle the first mistake you see, learning reviews, and balancing learning with proper accountability.

A multi-agency partnership you chair is stuck because two partners will not share data. What do you do?

A board might listen for: Understanding each partner's constraint, the lawful basis and agreements already in place, a way to share what is permitted, escalation routes, and rebuilding trust.

You and an inspector in a neighbouring area both want the same limited specialist resource for a busy weekend. How do you resolve it?

A board might listen for: Using risk and threat to decide, transparency about each side's need, a deal rather than a fight, and escalation only if you cannot agree.

Tell us about a partnership you built or repaired, and how you judged whether it was working.

A board might listen for: A specific partnership, your own part in it, shared outcomes, how you measured it, and what you did when it was not working.

You have to reduce a service in your command because of budget. How do you decide what to cut, and how do you lead the team through it?

A board might listen for: A transparent decision basis (risk, demand, harm), consulting those affected, honest communication, equality and welfare impact, and a review point.

You need your command to adopt a change that most staff dislike. How do you lead it?

A board might listen for: A clear case for the change, listening to objections and acting on the good ones, sergeants as allies, early wins, and honesty about what will be hard.

How do you keep track of changes outside the force that affect your command, and what have you done about one?

A board might listen for: Specific sources you use, one real change you acted on, short and long-term implications, and how you brought your team with you.

A dashboard says performance is improving, but frontline staff say it is not. How do you find out which is right?

A board might listen for: Testing the measure as well as the number, going to see for yourself, asking incisive questions, and what you would do if both are partly right.

You are asked to approve a plan on incomplete intelligence with a hard deadline. What do you need before you approve, and what do you do if you cannot get it?

A board might listen for: The minimum you need, what risk you would accept and how to mitigate it, a decision log, a review trigger, and being prepared to say no.

A senior colleague proposes a plan you think conflicts with the Code of Ethics. How do you challenge it?

A board might listen for: Courage with tact, grounding the challenge in evidence and the Code, offering an alternative, and what you do if the plan goes ahead regardless.

How would you decide whether to adopt a new technology tool in your command, and what would make you stop?

A board might listen for: The problem it solves, evidence from elsewhere, data protection and ethics, a small trial, success and stop criteria, and the effect on public trust.

Demand in your area is changing shape. How do you spot trends early, before they become a crisis?

A board might listen for: Data and soft intelligence together, listening to the front line and partners, a regular rhythm for horizon scanning, and acting on weak signals proportionately.

Your staff fear being blamed if a new approach fails. How do you encourage appropriate risk taking?

A board might listen for: Defining appropriate risk, how you back people publicly, learning reviews, and where the line sits between honest failure and negligence.

A well-connected local figure asks you to deal with a minor matter involving a friend of theirs 'sensibly'. What do you do?

A board might listen for: Treating it as you would anyone, recording the approach, being open about it, declaring any conflict, and a polite, firm reply.

A trusted colleague tells you in confidence about conduct that may amount to misconduct. What do you do?

A board might listen for: You cannot promise confidentiality, your duty to report, who you tell and how you treat the colleague fairly, and why this matters for public trust.

Resources are stretched. How do you choose between a request from a vulnerable community and more visible demand elsewhere?

A board might listen for: Threat, risk and harm rather than noise, listening to the community, equality impact, being open about the trade-off, and revisiting it.

Something has gone wrong in your command and it is likely to be reported. How do you decide what to say and when?

A board might listen for: Early, honest and accurate communication, not speculating, victim and family first, working with corporate communications, and what you will do to fix it.