Expo bolsters future prospects for thin blue line

While it might sound like a fun way to spend the last day of Term 2, there was a serious message for the 240 excited students who took part in the expo, which was held at Tamworth Sports Dome.

The expo followed the launch of You Should Be a Cop In Your Hometown recruitment and Youth Program initiatives by NSW Police in Tamworth on Thursday, July 4, with all events designed to help identify future NSW Police officers.

Students ranged from Year 7 to 12, and came from Tamworth, Peel and Oxley high schools, Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School, Quirindi High School and Ashford Central School.

All were keen to have a close look at the displays, and see what joining NSW Police could look like.

Year 12 Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School student Bayley Cork, has aspirations to serve the community and thinks joining the police might be just the right career path for him.

He's interested in the Police Dog Unit, enticed by the close bond handlers and their charges form.

"You get to live and work with the dogs, training and interacting with them, and that's pretty cool," he said

"Jumping crooks with the dog would also be pretty cool."

Year 9 Tamworth High student Ned Harvey is also interested in joining the Police Dog Unit.

In Ned's case, it is an aunt who has inspired his interest in joining the police force, something he's wanted to do since he was "a little kid".

"It would be amazing working with a police dog," Ned said.

Having a father in the Police force was the inspiration behind Year 9 Tamworth High student Emily Hiscox's interest in making that her career.

"My father worked forensic investigations, which is why I'm also interested in forensics," Emily said.

"You can either do a uni degree in forensics or join the police and then get into forensics, which is what I think I'll probably do.

"That means I'll first get a feel for being a police officer."

Farrer Year 12 student Thomas Moore has a friend whose parents are members of the police force, and says their job "seems cool".

"I go to my friend's place and hear his parents tell stories about their work and I think I'd really enjoy it," he said.

Thomas was interested in the forensics display, and jumped at the chance to try on the gear and get a closer look.

"I do biology as one of my subjects and we've been studying genetics and I find it really interesting what you can discover from a finger print or a DNA sample," he said.

Police recruitment manager Inspector Tina Davies said there were 200 different career pathways offered by NSW Police.

"The response from the students has been overwhelmingly positive," she said.

"We've had many come to speak to us about joining the police - there has been genuine interest in the eligibility criteria, the fitness requirements and what training is involved."

Inspector Davies said the move to now pay recruits throughout the 16 weeks of training was an added attraction. She said a new Probationary Constable would leave the Police academy at Goulburn on a starting salary of about $80,000.

"Our Tamworth expo has been a bit of a road test, but so far the formula is working - we seem to have all the right ingredients," Inspector Davies said.

Among the most popular career paths among the students were the Dog Unit, Tactical Operations Regional Support, Police Rescue and Highway Patrol.

"Everyone loves the police dogs, they love the gear the Tactical squad gets to use, and the technology used in the highway patrol cars today is always interesting," Inspector Davies said.