PW_1_2024
Professional Development
Flensburg on Patrol Tom Radford , Hampshire Branch An opportunity to spend a week in Germany for IPA Flensburg on Patrol, immediately piqued my interest, and so I am grateful I was to be selected. I live and work in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, as a response police officer, so have a keen interest in community and the relations within. With that in mind, what better than to spend a week in another European country, connecting with other officers from around the continent. It was a unique chance to share ideas, and discuss our own viewpoints on policing in the modern world. F lensburg, Germany’s northernmost town , is on the Danish border, in “Do you mind if I turn the A/C off?” muttered apprehensively by a chilly probationer, so desperately not wishing to annoy their fellow shift members during a midweek night turn.
the state of Schleswig-Holstein. In fact, the Bundeswehr cold war era barracks, in which we were accommodated, was situated just across the water from the Nordic country. The barracks stay was an experience in itself, and I appreciated the perplexed look that the German naval officers gave me as I walked past them, dressed in my No1’s and Custodian helmet. Every morning, we would exchange a casual “Moin!” with each other, asking no further questions. If you travel to Germany, (and I thoroughly recommend it) in this region’s dialect, ‘Moin’ is the standard greeting. This is compared with the regular ‘Guten Tag’ or ‘Hallo’ for the rest of the country. Our organisers for the trip were Jan and Tore, who are police officers based in Flensburg, and I can’t thank them enough for the experience they put on for us. To kick it all off, we had a wonderful welcome reception at Flensburg’s town hall and were told about the town by Stadtpräsidentin, Susanne Schäfer-Quäck. This was followed by an introductory speech by deputy head of police Marco Jäger. A traditional and very tasty buffet was then provided, which was a good opportunity to mingle and meet everyone. Officers came from all over, which included Ireland, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Norway, along with two from a neighbouring German state. After the ceremony, we were treated to a tour of the region’s control centre, and had an insight into what happens when a call is received, along with the dispatch process thereafter. We then moved onto their new, unopened centre. It’s the first time I’ve seen individual desk spaces that have their own controllable microclimate systems. No more will you need to hear the words
Continuing through the week, we spent a full day at the training academy for the Landespolizei of Schleswig-Holstein. This is a state-of-the-art complex, complete with a large dojo, firearms course, and specialist areas for all kinds of specialised learning and development requirements. Our tour was conducted by one of the leaders of the centre, Sven, and the best way to describe this fellow, is that he is probably the only one who could finally beat Chuck Norris, at his own game. During a demonstration of self-defence tactics, he allowed me to come at him with a knife, where in less than a moment’s notice, I was gracefully disarmed, and treated to a view down the barrel of his training pistol. After lunch, some scenarios were put on for us by an arrest squad. They gave a little knock with the big red key, and before one could blink, two suspects were in cuffs and efficiently escorted off the premises. There was a brief pause in the action, where we spoke with members of the state’s search and recovery department, and witnessed a bird’s eye view of ourselves on the screen of a drone operator’s monitor. These operational needs are of extra importance to Flensburg and the surrounding localities, due to its location between two coasts, along with the many islands that are dotted around. No day would be complete without a little riot to settle the nerves. A beautiful array of water canon options was displayed for us, before a warning was announced from the speakers of a massive vehicle, from which the water
Flying a Plane
Foot Patrol
POLICE WORLD Vol 69 No.1, 2024
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