Being a dyslexic police officer: 4 tasks and what works

A 2025 study looked at 25 dyslexic police officers across England and Wales. It found a lack of reasonable adjustments, and "disabling attitudes" still common inside forces (Hill, 2025).

The National Police Autism Association also supports dyslexic officers. It had about 2,800 members across UK forces as of August 2024 (NPAA).

Self-declared numbers like that likely undercount the real total. Disclosure inside a uniformed culture still carries risk for some.

For a dyslexic officer, the real risk sits in four tasks:

• Writing a statement fast enough to keep a case moving
• Recalling a radio code under pressure
• Entering custody forms without a wrong digit
• Reading your own notes aloud in the witness box

Each has a specific fix. None of them require waiting for national reform.

Writing statements and reports at speed

One officer typed "I pursued a male" in a Crown Court statement about a chase. It read "I perused a male" instead. Only a colleague's proofread caught the swap (Milton, British Dyslexia Association, April 2020).

The same officer once typed "retarded" instead of "retired" as a job title. Both are real, correctly spelled words. A spellchecker would never catch either one.

Adults with dyslexia keep struggling with spelling long after school. Writing problems run almost as deep as reading ones (Berninger et al., 2008). A statement written at speed is exactly when those problems show up.

One detective sergeant built a template for every report he wrote. It stopped him losing track of what needed to go in (College of Policing, May 2025).

Voice dictation software, like Dragon Professional Anywhere, lets an officer speak a statement instead of typing it. Access to Work can fund it. It also catches spelling errors at the point of writing, not after.

So what for you: ask for a template and dictation software before your next long shift. Don't wait for a report to get sent back.

Recalling radio codes and verbal updates under pressure

A 2025 study of 400 UK employed adults found dyslexia traits predict real-time errors at work. This held even after ruling out ADHD, personality, and workload (Smith-Spark & Huang, 2025).

Radio traffic moves fast. It gives no time to reread, and it depends on working memory holding a code or address in place. That is the same pressure the study measured, playing out live.

Standard radio discipline already treats "say again" as a routine request. Using it draws no attention at all.

Writing key details down as they come through helps more than holding them in memory. Reading a critical address or code back, before acting on it, catches most errors early.

Mobile data terminals reduce the load further, since a screen holds the detail instead of memory. Many forces now push incident details to the car or handset in text, alongside the radio call.

So what for you: build a two-second read-back habit into every exchange with an address, custody number, or code. It costs nothing, and it looks like standard procedure.

Custody paperwork and PNC data entry

Custody paperwork runs against that clock. One wrong digit on a record can raise a real question over whether the detention was lawful.

Dyslexia affects numbers as much as text. It is the same digit-swap risk seen in dyslexic accountants checking bank figures.

A named second reader for custody paperwork catches wrong digits early. Dyslexic accountants and dyslexic company directors use the same check on their own high-stakes work.

Digital custody systems with built-in validation help too. So does extra processing time, logged in writing with occupational health.

A worked example

Say a custody sergeant logs a start time of 14:53 instead of the correct 14:35. That 18-minute error looks small, until a defence solicitor challenges the exact moment the custody clock runs out.

A second reader catches the swap in seconds. A defence challenge over it can take months.

So what for you: ask for a named colleague to countersign custody entries on your shift. Get it agreed in writing, not as an informal favour that disappears when the rota changes.

Giving courtroom testimony from notes

Officers can refresh their memory from a contemporaneous notebook while giving evidence. This is standard court procedure, not a special favour.

Cross-examination is a different problem. It is exactly the high-pressure, low-time situation where reading your own handwriting under scrutiny gets harder.

UK judges and tribunals must apply the Equal Treatment Bench Book when a witness has dyslexia. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has confirmed that dyslexia-linked gaps in a story are not proof of lying. The case is Habib v Dave Whelan Sports Ltd (EAT 2023).

The same principle protects an officer giving evidence. Hesitating while reading notes is not a credibility problem.

Typed notes with word prediction, prepared the day before a hearing, read more easily under pressure than handwriting does. Access to Work can fund the software, through occupational health, not the court.

So what for you: review your notes with text-to-speech the night before a hearing, not the morning of. Hearing the words back catches errors your eyes will skip.

What this means for your next promotion round

Reasonable adjustments are available at every stage of recruitment, exams, and promotion boards. This applies both in-force and through the College of Policing.

The National Police Chiefs' Council's own neurodiversity lead is a dyslexic assistant chief constable. He was not diagnosed until his 40s, when he hit the senior executive selection process (College of Policing, May 2025).

He credits his dyslexia with the ability to see problems from several angles at once. He says that strength has helped him build stronger teams. He also uses text-to-speech daily for the volume of reading the role demands.

If report-writing or paperwork accuracy is where you lose time, request adjustments before your next appraisal. Don't wait for a promotion board to flag the mistake first.

Waiting for a failed board, or a formal complaint, to raise it puts you on the back foot. You end up defending a mistake instead of naming a need.

The reasonable adjustments builder turns a specific policing task, like custody paperwork or radio recall, into a written request. It drafts an email for occupational health in about two minutes.

So what for you: put the request in writing this week. A dated email outlasts a rota change, a new sergeant, or a memory of what was agreed verbally.

Officers who build their own templates and second-check routines are doing unpaid extra work. It is the same masking pattern seen across every profession this site covers.

The masking cost calculator puts a number on what that time costs across a year. It is useful evidence when requesting a formal workplace needs assessment.

Officers who suspect dyslexia, but have never been assessed, are not unusual. The NPCC's own neurodiversity lead was one, before his 40s. Check what a private diagnostic assessment costs at dyslexia assessment cost before deciding whether to pursue one.

Software costs, and the workplace needs assessment itself, can both be funded through the Access to Work guide.

Common questions about being a dyslexic police officer

Can you become a police officer with dyslexia?

Yes. Dyslexia does not bar entry to UK policing. Forces must consider reasonable adjustments during recruitment, exams, and once in post, under the Equality Act 2010.

Do police forces have to make reasonable adjustments for dyslexic officers?

Yes, once a force knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the dyslexia. A 2025 study of 25 dyslexic officers found adjustments were applied inconsistently, and often depended on individual managers (Hill, 2025).

What technology helps dyslexic police officers write reports faster?

Voice dictation software, like Dragon Professional Anywhere, lets an officer speak a statement instead of typing it. Text-to-speech tools catch errors before submission. Access to Work can fund both, for employed officers in the UK.

Does dyslexia affect police promotion exams and boards?

It can, especially written exams and structured interviews. These rely on remembering set frameworks under time pressure. Extra time and coloured overlays are available at every stage of the exam process.