DC Ahsan Anderson

DC Ahsan Anderson became a police officer after being a Special for six years.

"I joined policing initially to challenge myself. I always looked around and would never see people from my background or faith, and I wanted to be a visible part of my community. I wanted to be able to walk into a Masjid (a mosque) in uniform and the people there to see a friendly face they could trust.

"Making policing fit around my faith was initially a challenge because it was a brand-new world of compromise that I hadn't experienced before. A really poignant time was around Ramadan and fasting around the job. It became clear that night shifts were my friend, because I could eat right up to sunrise and head home a few hours and sleep most of the day off! Day shifts were a little harder, especially getting up near 2am to eat, going back to bed, then getting up at 5am to go to work. That said, I used this as an opportunity to reach out to my line managers who were massively supportive and let me take time off around my shifts to make sure I was able to get enough sleep and be able to come in and still give the job everything it needs. I hadn't received this level of understanding from an employer before and it really made me feel like part of the policing family.

"Ramadan and the reasons why Muslims fast is something I enjoy discussing every year, because I find it really important to share the reasons that we make the sacrifice that we do. It's not about losing weight (though it is a great side effect), but it's actually about being thankful for what we have and putting ourselves in the positions of people who are much less fortunate than us and don't have access to the basics like food and water."