Milk thieves, Netto and cannabis – A typical combination in the day in the life of me

I think it would be useful if I described a little bit about who I work for and who I work with so you get a better feel for the type of work I do here at the police.

I work for South Yorkshire Police in the Barnsley District so my office is here at Barnsley headquarters in Barnsley town centre. I work in a (tiny) office on the first floor made up of two Communications, Engagement and Marketing Officers, myself and my colleague Rowan. Rowan is 29, studied Public Relations at university and has run the department here since it first opened about 10 months ago.

Most of the work I do relates to the Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) which are local police teams which look after nine areas of Barnsley which make up the town. My main job is to promote the good work which the teams do and encourage the public to make contact with them.

Each week each area sends me details of some of the successful work they have completed. It could be a cannabis bust or a man arrested for shoplifting. It could even be something as random as an anonymous milk thief- true story and got decent coverage!

In order for me to find out about these stories, I have a lot of contact on the phone and in person with police officers, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and inspectors and sometimes I even go out with the teams on their duties so I get to see the story in the flesh along with my notepad and camera!

This week I have been planning, researching and writing two SNT newsletters which come out twice a year for each area. Yesterday I spent the day with Royston SNT at their station, liaising with the officers and finding out details of interesting work they have been doing recently to use in the newsletter. I went with them to visit a shop manager who is really upset at the minute with the amount of youths he has congregating outside of his store. This was an effective story to use in my newsletter because it gave me the chance to explain how Cudworth SNT is tackling a very topical issue. He also agreed for his photo to be taken with my colleague PCSO Annette Cooley.

It’s not only fun spending the day at the SNT stations, it also gives me the chance to meet the officers I write stories about and really fish for juicy stories which I know the press will be interested in.

Claire Thomas 
Year 3
BA (Hons) Public Relations
Leeds Business School

How it all began

My name's Claire and I'm a Public Relations student at Leeds Business School. I wanted to set this blog up to show off all the fun I am having here on my year placement and hopefully encourage future students to take up a placement too.

It was about this time last year when my course friends and I started discussing whether or not we were going to do a placement and getting really excited about the organisations we wanted to work for. Some people were really keen, while others felt it just wasn't for them. I myself, like many others, wanted to work for a big brand in London where I could hopefully work on some really exciting national campaigns. I was dead set on spending the following year living in a London apartment, riding the Tube to work everyday and was sure I would have national media contacts from The Sun and BBC on my phone's speed dial.

Like many others on the course, I joined the competition for interviews at brands such as BUPA, BBC and O2 but after several months, and several failed interviews, my next was at South Yorkshire Police in Barnsley and thankfully my efforts paid off and I was given the job!

Initially I was a bit unsure about this placement. I knew the organisation would be really exciting, I had already completed work experience at another police force and it was my best placement yet, but it was the location that I was a bit unsure about. After telling myself I was going to be living in the Big Smoke, it was hard to come to terms with the fact that I was actually going to be living in an old mining town, set in it's ways and full of ‘local folk’.

Fast forward 6 months and I am now fully settled in my placement, living in Sheffield and travelling to Barnsley each day, and most importantly, loving my job and learning more than I ever thought I could.

Working for South Yorkshire Police has got to be one of the most interesting placements as I get the unique opportunity to work with many different police departments, find out details of crimes, plan and implement media campaigns, write appeals for witnesses and information, secure coverage to promote the good work our local police teams carry out, arrange and attend photo calls, arrange events and deal with media enquires from national and local press. I even get to attend drug raids, spend time with the 999 response team and other departments to help increase my overall understanding of the organisation and the many different departments.

So now you know a bit about me and how I came to be working at South Yorkshire Police. As weeks go on, I will write and post videos to keep you updated and give you a real insight into my life here on placement.


Claire Thomas
BA(Hons) Public Relations


Year 3
Leeds Metropolitan University