skip navigation

Police Manuals Online


Frequently Asked Questions

If you cannot find the answer to your question, please Contact Us.

General

Subscriptions

Exams and Syllabus

Printing

Logging in

Access questions

Questions about content

Searching

General

What are the Blackstone's Manuals?

The Manuals are the only official reference texts for the OSPRE® Part I Promotion Exams for the police service. For a full description, please visit our product information pages.

What is the Blackstone's Police Q&A Online Service?

This is a new, online Multiple Choice Questions database. It is a study-aid for all police officers sitting the Part 1 promotion examinations. It contains over 1600 questions with additional questions added every month. Users can choose as many questions as they like to answer, or choose to sit a mock exam, and detailed feedback on performance will be given. All answers to the Q&A are explained and there are cross-references to the Manuals so you can easily go back and revise the relevant subject area.

What is the Blackstone's Police Manuals and Q&A Online Service?

This is an integrated study aid for police officers sitting the Part 1 promotion examinations. The Q&A are directly linked to the Police Manuals with users able to switch between the two in one click. All the benefits of the Police Q&A with the addition of the full text of the Manuals.

How can I view the Manuals online?

In order to view the Manuals online service, you will have to subscribe. However, you can view a small demo before subscribing.

What if I have already purchased paper copies of the Manuals and now want to get them online?

If you bought a pack of Manuals, you should have received a card which was stuck to the front of the Crime Manual. This card contains a unique reference number which entitles you to a large discount when purchasing the online Manuals. If you did not receive a card, please contact us and state when and where you bought the Manuals. We will require proof of purchase from you to issue you with a unique reference number. To buy the Manuals with this promotional code, please visit the Click and Buy site.

How often are the Manuals updated on the online service?

As per the paper Manuals, the online Manuals are updated on an annual basis. As the Manuals must follow the OSPRE® Part I promotion exam syllabus, we are unable to provide a more frequent updating service.

Can I try the Online Manuals before I buy?

We are unable at present to provide trial subscriptions. However, you can view a small demo before subscribing.

Who do I contact if I have any queries

Please visit the contact us page.

What does it mean when there is a vertical black line next to the text?

The Blackstone's Police Manuals contain some information which is outside the scope of the OSPRE® Part I exams.

  • A full black line down the margin indicates that the text beside it is excluded from Inspectors' examinations.
  • A broken black line down the margin indicates that the text beside it is excluded from the Sergeants' and Inspectors' examinations.

Therefore any material without a black line will be covered in both examinations.

Subscriptions

How do I subscribe?

For information on subscription packages, and to subscribe, please visit our online shop.

What if I have already purchased paper copies of the Manuals and now want to get them online?

If you bought a pack of Manuals, you should have received a card which was stuck to the front of the Crime Manual. This card contains a unique reference number which entitles you to a large discount when purchasing the online Manuals. If you did not receive a card, please contact us and state when and where you bought the Manuals. We will require proof of purchase from you to issue you with a unique reference number. To buy the Manuals with this promotional code, please visit the Click and Buy site.

If I subscribe now will I get immediate access to my online subscription?

Yes, you will be issued with a username and password which entitles you to access the products you've subscribed to today.

My force / institution has purchased a site licence. How do I access the Manuals / Q&A service?

Click here to go directly into the online product. if you have any problems accessing this, please call your administrator. You need to be using a computer on one of the force's / institution's networks.

What happens when my subscription comes to an end?

You will be notified when your subscription is due for renewal. At that time you will be asked if you wish to renew your subscription and will be given details of how to resubscribe.

Must I take out a 12 month subscription?

For the Manuals, only a 12 month subscription is currently available. However you may subscribe for just 3 months to the Q&A service.

What should I do if my contact details change?

If your contact details change, please contact us.

Exams and syllabus

Where do I go for information about the exams and the syllabus?

For all exam queries please contact NPIA by email. General information about the exams and a copy of the syllabus can be found on the NPIA website.

Printing

Can I print text from the Blackstone's Police Manuals Online Service?

Yes you may print out material from the online manuals. However it is very important that you read the Legal Notice, which includes information on printing, before you print anything from Police Manuals or Q&A online.

How much material can I legally print out from Blackstone's Police Manuals?

It is very important that you read the Legal Notice, which includes information on printing, before you print anything from Police Manuals or Q&A online.

Logging in

Where do I go to log in?

log in here

If I am a Click & Buy customer, how do I log in?

Click & Buy customers log in here

I have forgotten my username and password. What should I do?

If you have forgotten your username and password, please contact us.

Access questions

I am being denied access to the Police Manuals and/or Q&A online.

Are you a subscriber?

Make sure that you are a subscriber. The Police Manuals Online Service is a subscription only service and therefore is only available to subscribers. If you wish to subscribe, please visit our online shop by clicking here.

Are your username and password correct?

If you receive an error message stating a mismatch between your username and password, you may have entered the wrong details. Please try again or contact us for help or to request that a password reminder be sent to you.

Is your account on hold?

Occasionally an account is put on hold if we have not received your subscription payment, or if your subscription has expired. In both of these cases we would usually have been in touch with you about this. Do contact us for more information about this.

Error: Cookies must be enabled in your browser.

Cookies are required by subscribers who have concurrent user licences of Blackstone's Police Manuals Online in order to control concurrency-based access to the service. If you see the following error message when you try to log in to the Blackstone's Police Manuals site, then you need to enable cookies and try again:

Error

Cookies must be enabled in your browser. Please enable them then return to the homepage and log in again.

To configure your browser to accept cookies:

  • In Internet Explorer: Go to Tools / Internet Options / Advanced / and ensure that your security is set to 'Medium'.
  • In Netscape: Go to Edit / Preferences / Advanced / check "Accept all cookies"

This problem may also occur if you are behind a firewall, in which case you should contact your technical department or Internet Service Provider.

Functionality/contents problems

Questions about content

There is wrong information in the Manuals. Who shall I tell?

Please contact us. We will confirm and rectify the error as soon as possible.

One of the cross-reference links in the text doesn't work. Who should I tell?

If a cross-reference link in an entry isn't working, please contact us. We cannot correct faulty cross-reference links immediately but we will correct it as soon as possible.

Why are some characters displaying as boxes?

We recommend installing the Arial Unicode font to ensure that all characters display correctly.

Searching

I am having problems with searching. What should I do?

Try looking at our online Help file which gives you lots of information about searching as well as tips on how to avoid common problems. It might be that you need to alter your search term to either cast your net more widely if you have too few results, or narrow your search if you've got more results than you can deal with.

 
[ access key 0 : accessibility information including access key list ] [ access key 1 : home page ] [ access key 2 : skip navigation] [ access key 6 : help ] [ access key 9 : contact us ]