High-risk scenario training scheme pioneered by Northamptonshire Police attracting global interest
MNCE - Northamptonshire police have developed a new training programme in which officers are presented with scenarios enacted but students from Northampton University. Shannon Mulcahy (2nd year Foundation Police and Criminal Justice Studies student) and PC Ashley McMahon.
A PROGRAMME to train police in Northamptonshire about dealing with ‘high-risk’ situations could be rolled out across the globe after forces as far away as Hong Kong expressed an interest in the adopting the scheme.
Since May last year Northamptonshire Police has been training all of the force’s response officers with a series of role play scenarios. The scenarios, which are played out by theatre students at the University of Northampton and some of the county’s schools, put officers in real-life high-risk situations where police across the UK have previously failed to deal with victims of crime appropriately. Officers are then observed in how they deal with the situation.
Police have also been addressed by victims whose family members have been failed by officers in other parts of the country.
Wootton Hall bosses say the training has helped bring down the number of complaints against response officers by 33 per cent this year and say police are now better equipped to deal with victims in critical incidents.
The pioneering scheme has attracted interest from across the country, as well as from police in Australia, America, Canada, Holland, as well as Hong Kong.
Chief Inspector Andy Cox, who devised the training, said around 250 response officers had already undergone the programme, while other departments, including call centre staff, would also be put through the scheme.
He said the training had been designed to put officers in tough situations and to be a realistic as possible. He said: “If you look at professional sports people they practice in their field. They obviously do a lot of work away from it but ultimately you want to train people as if it is a real-life event. I think as we develop the training we will develop it in a way that becomes ever more realistic.”
Ch Insp Cox said the programme was cheap and was now causing a stir in the police world.
He added: “Up and down the country we have had contact with senior officers who have come and seen us and have asked us to go and present this to them.
“It has been in three national police publications. We’ve presented it at national training conference, we are down to present at the national police standards conference and we have had lots and lots of interest from abroad.
“Police in Hong Kong want to send a number of their officers over here to be trained.”
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Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
jimorourke
Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 11:41 AMI am amazed the police in Northamptonshire have the resources and the time to play act. Could the council tax tied up in this playacting not be used to fund PCSOS.?
lady muck
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 08:14 PMI smell money...who's paying what and to whom ?
unclejohn1972
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 04:35 PMSo the Police shouldn't continue to train the kronik? Shouldn't keep up with new legislation or policies which seem to change on a weekly basis? If required update training brings in a few extra pounds, all the better! Your comment sounds a bit dumb once put in perspective, doesn't it kronik?
kronik
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:38 PMUnless this playacting by our police force results in significant financial gain from selling this program worldwide - please stop now. Our police force is to protect Northamptonshire not spend time and money developing dubious schemes. As willi eckaslyke states it would be far more use for our police to see how Hong Kong deals with matters and use their systems. Do our police now have to be Equity members?
willi eckaslyke
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 09:03 AMThink you'll find the Hong Kong police already have long-established ways of effectively dealing with every kind of 'senario'..perhaps they are coming here to offer a few finishing touches to the training programme..
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