#MeetTheRep - Jim Dawborn
25 April 2025
So Jim, tell us a little about your career…
Well I started off in investigation and got a good foundation of that, but neighbourhoods really interested me and so I moved on to there for a couple of years. I then went into proactive teams on our division, before taking a career break for about 10 months. During that time in 2014, I trained as a hypnotherapist and did that for a while, but I came back and got put into investigation again. From there, I went onto response, got promoted to sergeant and then went back into neighbourhoods. I was there for about five years before being promoted - so it’s fair to say I’ve moved around a bit!
Do you think your hypnotherapy skills help with the day job?
It definitely helps when it comes to understanding PTSD, which I’ve got a certification in – helping to recognise the signs and symptoms. If someone was to experience a traumatic event through work, which at the moment is a daily business, I can help to ensure support is given out and signpost them to the right place. That could be mental health first aiders, it could be the chaplain, but they’re also entitled to have a diffused session where a diffuse trained person will sit down with them and discuss the events. If necessary, their line manager will also do a risk assessment to ensure they get the right support.
It sounds like really interesting work…
Yes, I’m just really fascinated about psychology and the ability to be able to get into the subconscious mind and the power the mind has. You can transform your belief system and stop smoking, fears, phobias – it’s really interesting.
And now you’re a Fed Rep, tell us why you took this on…
Well it’s very easy to get consumed within your role and department, and it’s not until you actually think about the organisation in a wider context that you realise there’s so many interesting things going on. It’s so easy to just have tunnel vision. I’m very conscious that there’s more going on than just my leadership in the team, and I want to help influence that. If there’s some great work going on, I want to see how that impacts not only Surrey but all forces across England. So yeah, I wanted to have a better understanding, awareness and to try and make some improvements for not only my team but everyone employed by Surrey Police.
Why do you think it’s important to have officers as Fed Reps?
Because it’s easy to see them as approachable. If you know someone within your department is a rep, you know you can go up and ask a question rather than thinking ‘I don’t know who to approach’. Being visible and being seen as a rep will help people gravitate towards you and you can be there to give information out.
So how can people approach their Rep?
Everyone should get to know their local rep and the avenues to approach them, but there’s also links on the intranet. To be honest, this is all new to me, so I’m still learning as it goes but there’s various means. There’s a big social media presence and awareness too.
