Version 7.6

Februar 2009

Freiwilliger Polizeidienst Berlin

Freiwillige aus aller Welt - Volunteers from the world

Großbritannien

Thames Valley Police

Foreign reserves: first contact SO Rod A. of Thames Valley Police
describes how to contact volunteer officers
in other countries.

In (SB Vol 9 No 3) SC Phil Nicholes of Dyfed-Powys Police reported on the visit I arranged for him to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Reserves earlier this year. Since the feature appeared I have been inundated with requests to arrange similar visits for other SC’s, here are some tips on how to make that ‘first contact’.

The following countries have volunteer officers who perform police duties in a similar manner to UK Special Constables: U.S.A, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Bermuda, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. By far the largest of these is the U.S.A. with 350,000 volunteer officers therefore I will describe their structure.

At Federal level in the US you have the F.B.I, DEA and U.S. Marshals Service, at State level there is Highway Patrol, State Troopers, State Police and Texas Rangers. At County level there are Sheriff’s Department and City Marshals, and at City level there are Municipal Police, Metropolitan Police, Precinct Constables and City Police. In addition Parks, Transit, Airports, Harbours, Colleges, Universities and Hospitals all have their own police departments. Each state uses some of these titles and most departments use volunteers known as Reserve, Special or Volunteer Officers.

First select the state and then county that you wish to make contact with or visit, in general contact at Federal level would be very difficult to arrange. A detailed map of the U.S.A. will usually show the county boundary from which you can find the name of that department, and then locate the name of cities within that county. (In the U.S.A. what we would refer to as a town is called a city).

Having made a list of likely places you then need access to the Internet to look for information on the relevant departments. Some good directory sites to visit for volunteer departments are:
www.officer.com/agencies.htm www.digitallattice.bc.ca/res_prog.html www.azsecurity.com/pdlist.html

Most Internet websites will indicate if the department have volunteer officers and some have been established by the volunteers themselves. Take a look at:
www.ips.net/ccreserves/index.html www.lasd.org/reserve/index.html www.kruppatech.com/volunteer

Having located a department most give an e-mail address or fax number to contact them, or an address to write to. When contacting them for the first time give as much detail as you can on your own force, including their Internet site address, and your age, length of service etc. A lot of US volunteers will not have heard of ‘Special Constables’ so explain what you are!

If you intend visiting a US department whilst on holiday find out what they have prepared for your visit in advance. US volunteers are a very welcoming group of people, if you turn up in Hawaiian shorts and sweatshirt when they take you to meet the Chief of Police you might be a little embarrassed. If they suggest you bring your uniform you must get authority from your Chief Constable to take it, that way you can explain how you came back minus your helmet!

Be very careful about taking handcuffs and batons, airlines are very sensitive about them in luggage. It is most important that you take suitable gifts for your hosts, your force plaque should be presented to the most senior person you are introduced to. US departments all have shoulder patches and metal shields which they will be keen to give you. It is useful if you can take a supply of cap badges and SC+Crown to give in exchange.

I always take along several sets of my forces recruiting literature for Specials along with the force newspaper and of course copies of Special Beat. Do be prepared to talk authoritatively on your forces organisation, policing plan, crime statistics and Specials training. They are always interested to hear how volunteers operate in other countries.

Once friendships have been made, e-mail makes it easy to keep in touch to exchange ideas etc. You will find that the methods of policing and problems of volunteer officers in other countries are remarkably similar to those of Specials in the UK.

Armed officers now on the beat in Great Britain

A UK police force has introduced armed foot patrols on the streets for the first time in
mainland Britain in an attempt to combat rising gun crime.

Officers wearing Walther P99 pistols on their hips are conducting regular patrols on
estates in Nottingham. Until now, armed officers have been deployed on the streets of
mainland Britain only for diplomatic duties or when crewing armed response vehicles.

The use of the foot patrols in Nottingham is being monitored by at least six other forces,
including Merseyside and West Yorkshire, which face similar problems over gun crime,
largely drug-related.
Chief constables are free to make their own decisions on how they deploy armed officers,
and the Home Office was not consulted over the move by Nottinghamshire police.
This weekend Charles Clarke, the Home Office minister, admitted that he had not been
aware of it until last week. "I would stress this is an operational matter for the chief
constable, but I have asked for a full briefing," he said. "For the time being, I am not going
to say more than that."

The patrols were launched by Nottinghamshire Police after a series of shootings on the
city's St Ann's and Meadows estates sparked by a turf war between rival gangs of
drug-dealers.

At least six officers, armed with pistols and operating in pairs, spend up to five hours from
dusk until midnight patrolling the streets. They are supported by two police vans, in which
Heckler and Koch MP5 carbines are carried.

Senior Nottinghamshire officers believe the use of armed patrols, which are reviewed
weekly, has sent a "strong message" to criminals not to use weapons and has, so far,
helped prevent gun crime spiralling out of control.

[Home] [Vorwort] [Geschichte] [Aktuell] [FP in Deutschland] [FP in the world] [World] [Germany] [USA] [England] [Scotland] [Finland] [South-Africa] [Netherlands] [Infothek]