'I swapped scoring goals for catching criminals and I can't imagine doing anything else'
When she joined South Yorkshire Police, former international professional footballer, Ellie Hawcroft swapped her studded boots for patrol ones.
PC Hawcroft is now on the frontline as a response officer in Wombwell, Barnsley – and her goal these days is to keep the streets of South Yorkshire safe.
Ellie joined as a student officer in February 2023 as part of the force’s Degree Holder Entry Programme (DHEP) scheme, which is currently open for applications.
When she was at college Ellie, now aged 24, was already playing football for Sheffield FC’s first team and the under-21 England Colleges team.
“I was a young kid playing against adults, but I was very strong and a lot of them didn’t like it,” she laughs. “You had to be headstrong and show you belonged there.”
Ellie was picked up by an agency and following a series of ‘showcase’ games she received 40 offers from coaches but for her it was an easy choice what to do. “It was always my dream to go to America,” she says.
“One of my best friends is Esme Morgan, who plays for England. She always wanted to go and play for Manchester City, that was her dream, but my dream was always to go and play in America – because of the film Bend it like Beckham.”
Ellie, who loves country music, chose Nashville, where she studied journalism and broadcast alongside playing football. She remained there for a year, living in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat when she wasn’t in her football kit, before moving to West Virginia with a full scholarship.
Over the next three years, she completed a business and marketing degree while also training three times a day. Ellie returned to her family in Barnsley at the end of 2022 and started the DHEP scheme the following year.
The DHEP is a work-based programme, supported by off-the-job study towards a graduate diploma in professional policing practice. Ellie passed in February and has been working on response in Wombwell ever since.
“It’s a lot of hard work but I have a great team around me on my group,” she says. “We all dig in together, it is our little family unit. They really are a family away from home.
“Being able to work in the area where I’m from is great. I feel like a lot of the time people engage with me because I’m one of them – I speak and sound like them. I feel like that gets me a lot further in the job. I also enjoy getting ‘free’ tickets to the Barnsley match when I’m working at it.”
Ellie plays football for the SYP sports and social club team when she has time around her shift pattern.
Her message to anyone considering joining the force is this: “Just give it a go. I think people are probably deterred away from policing because all they see is the bad things, they don’t always see the rewarding side. But it has so much to offer, and now I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
The DHEP programme is open now.