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75th Anniversary

Anniversary Dinner in Liverpool By Richard Buckingham , Thames Valley Branch 1950 legendary “Scouse” stew amongst the menu items. O ur first day out included a very informative open top bus tour of the city. That ended at the docks, where we took a Mersey ferry cruise for an hour. Among the highlights, we passed the new Everton FC ground at Bramley Dock. In the afternoon/evening there was the opportunity to visit a live music festival of pop tribute acts. On the second morning, group tours went to either the Roman Catholic cathedral or the Church of England cathedral. In the afternoon, visits to the Beatles Museum and The Cavern Club were offered. On the third day we visited the purpose built four-year-old Merseyside Police HQ. Our visit was opened by the Chief Constable, Serena Kennedy KPM, showing us an overview of her four years in charge of Merseyside. This was followed by a presentation about local policing by the Superintendent in charge of St Helens, one of the five Areas of Merseyside. During the afternoon we visited the Matrix department. This covered all aspects of Ops Policing, such as dog section, firearms, traffic, methods of entry, and drone operations. I’ve never seen such a fabulous firearms range, which also had the capabilities to include exercises with vehicles.

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Judith and I recently attended the IPA Region 3 Liverpool and Merseyside 75th anniversary celebrations of the IPA. We were based at The Liner Hotel, just a few hundred yards away from Liverpool Lime Street train station, very close to the city centre. We were welcomed at an evening reception which included the

This was followed by a celebratory four course gala evening meal at the Liner Hotel. Celebratory guests included the Chief Constable of Merseyside, the Mayor of Liverpool, the President of IPA France and our very own President, Karen Duckworth (see Keeping You Informed , page 4). Our last full day gave options of visiting various museums and a ground tour of Anfield, the home of Liverpool FC or a “Magical Mystery Tour” by bus. It also gave us time to reflect on and appreciate the enormous amount of work involved in arranging the logistics and coordinating such an event.

Rob Smith (Secretary) was our main contact, but there was also a small team of people helping Rob, and we were grateful for all their endeavours. As well as fellow Brits, we had guests from around the world, including Canada, Germany, France, Norway and Poland. We had an absolutely fabulous time, and look forward to seeing what future events the IPA will offer.

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POLICE WORLD Vol 70 No.4, 2025