PW-2-2026

Blue Light Ride

Bringing Blue Light to the Dark: A Journey to Venlo By Chris Bagnall

In December 2024, while mindlessly scrolling through social media, I stumbled across a reel that stopped me in my tracks. It showed an extraordinary sight: around 100 emergency vehicles, blue lights blazing, parked together in a car park in Venlo—a town in the northeast of the Netherlands, close to the German border. The event was mesmerising. The sheer scale of organisation and effort was impressive enough, but as I looked deeper, I realised this wasn’t about spectacle or camaraderie alone.

T his was an International Police Association (IPA) event created for sick children spending Christmas in hospital. Its aim was simple but powerful: to bring blue light to the dark December nights. And from everything I could see, it achieved exactly that. Having made tentative enquiries, to my amazement, my Inspector agreed that we should try to go! I’ve been a member of the International Police Association for around 20 years, yet I’d never attended an event or even been to a physical meeting. Like many, my engagement had been limited to the Police World magazine. Looking again at my membership, I realised I’d been missing out on something far bigger. By January, the planning had begun—and the scale of what I’d taken on quickly became clear. This wasn’t a case of simply turning up. The approvals alone were daunting. Had I bitten off more than I could chew? Possibly. But by then, I was fully invested. Taking a marked police vehicle into mainland Europe isn’t something Staffordshire Police had ever done, at least not to my knowledge—and certainly not post-Brexit. Still, support came from every direction. The local IPA group backed me. National IPA backed me too. Then came the permissions: • Home Office approval to take a marked police vehicle out of the UK • Approval from the Dutch event organisers • Authority from our Executive Team • Permission from the National IPA Committee to represent them abroad Each came with its own challenges. But it also helped that 2025 marked the IPA’s 75th Anniversary—an opportunity to raise the organisation’s profile within Staffordshire, where it was relatively unknown. One non-negotiable condition was that there could be no cost to the taxpayer. That meant no operational vehicle and no force funding.

Fundraising became essential, and while it wasn’t easy, I eventually reached the minimum needed to make the trip viable. If I hadn’t, I was prepared to fund it myself. After countless emails and calls, two companies initially agreed to help, then pulled out. Time was running out. I reached out to colleagues across the UK and retired officers—and eventually, one vehicle caught my eye on social media: the Ineos Grenadier, showcased by former Police Interceptors star Ben Pearson. I reached out. And to my astonishment, they said yes, just weeks before the event. At 04:30 on Tuesday 9 December, we set off for Folkestone. The weather was awful, but progress was good. At the Channel Tunnel terminal, the looks we got were priceless: a fully marked UK police vehicle boarding a train to Europe. People asked questions. When we explained why we were travelling, their excitement matched our own. We were venturing into the unknown. We knew French, Belgian, and Dutch authorities had been informed—but how would officers on the ground react? A Dutch Welcome We arrived in Venlo without incident and checked into our accommodation, only to be immediately invited to join the event organisers for a pre–Blue Light Ride meal. After a quick change out of uniform, we headed to secure parking at a local fire station. That evening over an ‘all-you-can-eat buffet’, we met officers from Police Scotland, Belgium, The Netherlands, and even Belgian Customs—all IPA members. Within minutes, conversation flowed and experiences were shared. We were handed bags overflowing with gifts—badges, patches, chocolates, bike lights. I felt a little inadequate with the modest patches we’d brought, but it quickly became clear: it wasn’t about what you brought, but that you came. Driving 485 miles was more than enough.

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POLICE WORLD Vol 71 No.2, 2026