The National Police Lifesaving Championships is a national competition held annually in June and is hosted by a different police force across the UK each year.

The competition gives police officers, police community support officers and other police staff an opportunity to showcase their skills in water rescue and first aid based on Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) training.
There are three different competitions:
1. Male Competition (four males and a reserve)
2. Female competition (four females and a reserve)
3. Mixed competition (two females and two males with a reserve female and a reserve male)

The competition is made up of 4 different elements.
First of all teams have to deal with a staged incident involving role-actors suffering a wide range of injuries / illnesses. Judges will observe the four team members under the command of a team captain and will score them on their communication and reassurance and the first aid they deliver.

The following two elements are in a swimming pool. The first is a rope throw event where the competitor has to stand poolside and throw a rope to a casualty up to 12 metres away in the pool and then pull the casualty safely to the poolside in under 1minute and 10 seconds. The second element is a swim and tow where the competitor has to swim two lengths of the pool before rescuing a casualty and then towing the casualty a further two lengths of the pool to safety. This event is timed and conducted as a race.

The final element is an open-water team rescue event that takes part in a lake, reservoir, river or the sea. Similarly to the first event it is a first aid rescue scenario involving multiple role-actor casualties and the police team of four competitors have to rescue the casualties and treat them for their injuries.

RLSS independent judges score all the elements of the competition and awards are presented to not only winning teams but also winning captains and to the fastest male and female individuals in the combined rope throw and swim and tow event.

Currently we have approximately 15 police forces from Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland competing.