In our new feature ‘Behind the Badge’ we will be giving the Harrow community a chance to learn a bit more about the local police officers in our area.
In our first feature, we interviewed Inspector Muneeb Ishtiaq who has been a member of the force for nearly twenty years.
What is your role?
“Currently I’m the Partnership and Prevention Inspector for Northwest London. The role entails me covering licencing, mental health and ASB teams for the BCU as well as other duties as being the point of contact for public scrutiny groups such as the Community Monitoring Group’s ( Who look at police use of Stop and Search) and the Independent Advisory Group’s (who look at police activity across the boroughs and assist with any critical police incidents).
“It’s definitely a challenging role but one that has allowed me to hone my problem solving skills and pursue my passion for partnership working.”
How long have you worked for the Met?
“I joined the met police in June 2004”
What made you want to join?
“A number of reasons the police was always an attractive option to me more for the variety in the role. I attended a recruitment fair whilst in university and the recruiter showed me the variety of roles within the MPS at the time.
“The thought of being able to change role on a regular basis but still being able to help the community in some way was appealing to me. To date I still get a great amount of job satisfaction regardless of my role so I think I made the right choice.”
What is the most difficult part of your job?
“For me it was the shifts. I can be difficult working all hours of the day especially if you are trying to maintain a work life balance.
“I’ve always enjoyed the more dynamic aspects of the jobs such as dealing with people on the streets but it can be hard sometimes when you come in and your always playing catch up because even if you have a day off the police machine keeps rolling forward.
“My current role involves a lot of partnership work and it can be difficult managing some of the bigger projects between so many organisations. Saying that it gives you that much more satisfaction when you wrap up one of these bigger projects.”
What is the best part of your job?
“Apart from the comradery and shared focus I have from team work I really enjoy knowing that everything I am doing is helping society in some way. It might seem as a bit grandiose to put it like that, but I try and compare my job to my peers in other jobs its always my biggest plus side. The other aspect I love is the dynamic nature of the job.
“It means I never get bored, as on any given day I could be working on a different role depending on what the organisation needs. I get to work on the streets, run operations or mentor people. I really enjoy that range of experience.”
To find out more about careers in the Met visit https://www.met.police.uk/car/careers/
