ON THE BEAT AT CRYSTAL PEAKS

Bemused shoppers and visitors to Crystal Peaks looked on mystified as stolen credit cards, attempted deception, shoplifting, theft and missing child scenarios were just some of the situations played out right in front of their eyes and ears recently by South Yorkshire Police – but they needn’t have been worried by the 16 strong, uniformed presence, as it was all part of the force’s ‘Student Officer Practicials’ - the first of many to held at the award winning Sheffield Shopping Centre.

Police Sergeant 3030 Valerie Bull from Ecclesfield Police and Training Centre, commented, “From the outset our vision is to provide the best educational and training opportunities for our student police officers and we’re committed to making the finest people out of these new recruits. It’s the culmination of 17 long and hard weeks of intensive training and for this hands-on operation to be a huge success we needed to make these assessed mock problems as life like as possible for these young trainee officers. Location, atmosphere, ambience and most importantly genuine people all play their part. We enlisted the help of 12 astonishing actors from Barnsley’s Lamproom Theatre to do the role-playing and they were just amazing, getting so much into character - at times it was highly difficult to distinguish them from the real thing! I can proudly say after today’s “staging”, I’m delighted how our mission has turned out and here’s to many more highly functional successes”

She added, “Prior to the introduction of the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme, all our probationer constables received their foundation training at a regional Police Training Centre. One of the drawbacks of that system was that regional training centres served several forces with class trainers drawn from those forces. By their very nature those establishments, all located outside our force area, tended to isolate probationers from the communities they served. In addition, in order to meet the needs of a broad range of forces, the training delivered was generic and general, with very little scope for inputs tailored to individual force needs. To address these issues, we wanted our officers trained locally and within our own neighbourhoods to reflect the diversity of the society and the ensuing problems we have to police on a daily basis within South Yorkshire. It is so essential for harmonious community relations and it’s all part of our commitment, not only to learning but also for our neighbourhood policing policies to reflect true social issues.”

Chris Jones, Centre Manager said, “This recent co-mission is yet another example of the excellent partnership which exists between South Yorkshire Police and Crystal Peaks. This operation has the ultimate goal of further professionalising South Yorkshire Police’s approach to learning thereby enabling them to further enhance their service provision by working together for safer communities. Hopefully the extent of this collaboration between South Yorkshire Police and Crystal Peaks will be seen as a pioneering one … and who knows, maybe serve as a role model for other police forces throughout the UK to adopt."

For further information, please call:
Darryl Dawson

t: 01302 759696 m: 07973 676942
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