PW_4_2023

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Thai Police Friendship Weekend at Fox Road Karen Duckworth , VP Social & Culture

It is not every day that you are able to ask, “Would you mind coming to Fox Road, and chat to some young Thai Police officers about policing in the UK”, but that is exactly what we asked at the end of July. T he Thai officers are in the UK studying a range of academic courses, from Masters Degrees to Doctorates. They are very informative session for all in the room, with President Clive Wood, giving an introduction to the IPA to finish. opportunities for them to connect with members up and down the country.

To top it off, as new members, two of the Thai officers based in London, managed to get on one of the London Reception Officer’s Palace of Westminster tours, underlining what great opportunities are available to members. Creating new and interesting opportunities for members is a top priority for the executive, as well as reaching out to increase recruitment. Being able to demonstrate the uniqueness of the IPA in terms of its international reach is just one way of bringing the two together.

here with the Chevening Scholarship, a Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) project, to support those considered to be at the top of their professional game. They are then asked to take back the best practice from their year in the UK, and consider it within the context of their professional practice back home. This has been seen as a great opportunity for Section UK, in the sense that we could reach out to the officers, many of whom had little police contact, to enhance their academic experience and connect them with our own members. It was also a chance to use Fox Road as a learning hub, something the Executive would like to do more of in the future. With members from the Metropolitan Police, PSNI, and the local Nottinghamshire Branch in attendance, the Friendship Weekend built up in stages, starting with a Saturday morning tour of Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, where the group were given access to areas of the stadium the public would not normally visit, including the control room. Austin, our guide (and former Nottinghamshire Police Officer) explained the safety and security considerations that the operations team, and the Safety Officer, have to balance at every event. This was especially evident during our visit, as Trent Bridge hosted a significant number of cricket matches in August, as part of the ‘100 series’. The tour added colour and context to the scenario that had been devised for the afternoon, based on a body being found in the cricket ground, and the subsequent investigation. Presenters included Martin Turner (Counter Terrorism and Major Incident Management - British Transport Police), Tom Chisholm (Head of Homicide Investigation - Staffordshire Police) and Deirdre Mahoney (Lead Investigative Interviewing Trainer - PSNI). It was a

On Sunday morning, Nottingham Branch members Tony Berrington and his wife Annie, arranged for the group to visit the

new Nottinghamshire Police HQ, with its new Command-and-Control Center. We had a very informative tour around the site with Chief Inspector Rob Shields, visiting the training school, the amazing gymnasium facilities used for sport as well as officer safety and taser training, finishing off in the Control Room, where CI Shields was able to explain all the various facets that make up the complex CCC picture, and how they ensure calls are answered in a timely manner, and an appropriate response is deployed. It’s always fascinating seeing how this is done between forces in the UK, but for the Thai group, it must have been especially interesting as having chatted to them afterwards, the set up in Thailand is very, very, different. We were then treated to a superb demonstration of the firearms kit and armoury by Inspector Chris Jones, and his two ARV colleagues (one of whom turned out to be an IPA member). They emptied their car and went through all the equipment they carried, giving the group a chance to try on and experience the different bits of kits – something all officers enjoy. For our Thai and PSNI officers, a trip into the armoury must have been like ‘a day in the life of…’, however, for the rest of us it was jaw-dropping to see all the seized firearms (many of which were frighteningly home-made) taken off the streets of Nottinghamshire. When we went back to Fox Road, to meet members of Notts Branch over lunch, we were delighted to see that nine out of the 10 Thai officers had joined the IPA there and then. We hope to reach out to the new tranche, who arrive in September for their year of UK study, and engage with them much earlier, creating

POLICE WORLD Vol 68 No.4, 2023

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