Police World Edition 4 2014

Article

Auf wiedersehen Two police officers from Section Germany spent a month in the UK as part of an International Learning & Development Exchange Programme (ILDEP) placement. Lisa Mende and Vera Volmary spent the whole of July with Nottinghamshire police - to gain an understanding of policing abroad and to share knowledge. N ottinghamshire IPA branch Chair, Gurmit Kaur, acted as a mentor to Lisa and Vera, creating a four-week programme for them to learn about UK policing and partnership work in in the county. She explained that policing in Britain and Germany were not too dissimilar however the process for progression within the police differs considerably. Much newer into policing, Lisa is very excited to Before leaving the UK, they ended their secondment by visiting the temporary Chief Superintendent Steve Cooper. Lisa (left) and Vera with Nottinghamshire Police’s Underwater Unit

Gurmit said, “I was able to meet the request of the areas of work the German officers asked for, but the credit has to go to all the officers who assisted in giving them the opportunity to learn about their area of work – a big thank you to all of you involved

begin her career in Germany. She felt that her experience during her time with Nottinghamshire police gave her a good platform to learn and progress from. Lisa said: “There isn’t much encouragement for the public to come to the police and give us information in Germany, so I was very impressed with certain concepts like Crimestoppers…there is no anonymity in Germany.” Lisa was also impressed with deterrents such as SmartWater and the preventative measures that the force use to educate the public in how to deter criminals. Both Lisa and Vera jointly expressed their delight in working with the force throughout their placement. They said, “We have had an amazing month and it has been 100% worthwhile. We’ll definitely be taking our experience back to Germany with us – thank you to everyone for making our time in Nottinghamshire so special – especially Gurmit, who was the master of the operation!”

In only their second week the pair had gained experience in a multitude of departments - they had attachments to the control room, dog section, intelligence. They experienced night time economy, partnership work in the neighbourhood policing team, ASB team, UDT training and joined the rapid response community protection officers. Gurmit said: “It was a great month and an absolute pleasure to have Vera and Lisa with us. They gave us really good feedback and it has been beneficial to the many teams who they have spent time with to share their knowledge and experience.” Vera, who is a dog handler and has been in the German Police for 14 years had always wanted to visit the UK. She said: “I hope we can stay in contact and in the future, it would be great to organise an exchange programme for dog handlers to come and train with us in Germany and see how we do things and learn from each other.”

for making their time with us so valuable.” Vera and Lisa had the opportunity to meet

Gaining experience on how UK police conduct a search

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POLICE WORLD Vol 59 No. 4, 2014