From estate agent to lifesaver: The Dacorum PC who found his calling on the front line
A police officer nominated for an award just three months into the job says the skills that got him there started long before he joined the force.
When PC Nick Beresford arrived at a call in January 2024, he and a colleague found a woman with serious injuries to her arm.
She had already lost around a pint of blood and was drifting in and out of consciousness. As his colleague applied a tourniquet to stem the bleeding Nick knelt beside her, talking to her and keeping her calm for about an hour.
A senior emergency medical technician later praised the rapport he built with her and his “fantastic bedside manner”.
As a result, Nick was nominated for a Royal Humane Society award for lifesaving first aid. “I always carry two tourniquets with me now,” he said.
Nick now serves as a neighbourhood officer in the Dacorum district, which covers Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring.
He joined Hertfordshire Constabulary in 2023 through Police Now’s neighbourhood programme, but policing wasn’t his first career and his route into it was anything but typical.
His father served in the RAF so Nick grew up in Germany, Turkey and Saudi Arabia - spending about three years in each before the family came back to the UK in 2012.
“I went to different schools in a few countries and I wish I could give what I had to any kid,” he said.
“I have fond memories of travelling and meeting new people, and that ability to connect with new people is really important as a police officer.”
He studied business and marketing at Sheffield Hallam University and while there he joined the university air squadron, spending four years as a reservist.
He went climbing in Malta, on skiing expeditions, and he completed the Nijmegen Four Days Marches, a 100-mile event for NATO personnel that he describes as “mega”.
After graduating he spent two years as an estate agent and did bar work on the side. It wasn't a good fit for him.
“I wasn’t the best estate agent,” he admitted. “I was probably too honest to be a good salesman.”
In 2023 he applied to Police Now, which offers the only national graduate entry route into policing, passed his assessments and went on to its residential academy.
He said: “I really enjoyed the residential. I got on well with the tutors and the other participants.
“One of my best skills is that I can read personalities. During one of the exercises I managed to talk the tutors out of a concern for welfare situation. They said it was the first time someone had managed it in six years.”
That instinct has served him well. In his first few years he has received eight award recognitions, including student awards in 2024 and 2025.
“For me, intelligence is the name of the game and relationships help with that,” he explained.
“I talk to everyone, from people on the street to grandmothers at coffee mornings. One of those relationships helped with a huge drugs operation that was a great success for the force.”
As part of the Police Now programme he spent a month with counter terrorism, which he says was fascinating.
These days his main focus is county lines and drug crime. Eventually he wants to become a detective, covering serious and organised crime and counter terrorism.
But for now he says he’s staying put, adding: “I want to learn as much as possible. Being in the police is a great job. It has its ups and downs, like any other career, but it gives you some great personal qualities and makes you resilient.
“There are lots of good people in the force and not everything has to end in conflict.
“You have to be courageous, which is something many people don't think they have, but actually they do.
“You don’t always get lots of thanks but it's so rewarding to feel like you are actually helping people.”
To find out more about Police Now, visit www.policenow.org.uk.