Mini Police team up with trainee PCs in control room demo

A group of mini police got the chance to put their police hats on by taking part in an incident logging exercise alongside a group of trainee PCs.

Fourteen children from High Oakham school in Mansfield, visited Nottinghamshire Police’s headquarters on Thursday (6 July).

The group was treated to a tour of the force’s control room, watched call handlers respond to emergency calls and heard about what their job entails.

Next on their list, they visited the training school to work with a group of trainee PCs.

Partnering up with an officer the children then got the opportunity to ask them questions and try on some of their uniform and helmets, before listening to a staged voice recording of an incident being reported to the control room.

The group got to work alongside the trainee PCs taking notes and learning more about how calls are dealt with.

The Mini Police programme currently works with 506 students from different schools across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

Barbs Strang, from Nottinghamshire Police’s Citizens in Policing department, who arranged the visit, said: “Teaming the children up with some of our trainee PCs was great not only for the kids but for our trainees too.

“They got the chance to ask questions and get to interact with the trainees who reinforced we’re friendly and here to help. It’s also great to see the trainee PCs interact with the school children and get to put the skills they’ve learned in training into action.

“Being a PC isn’t just about arresting people – it’s about engaging with our communities and visiting schools.

“Putting both groups together to go through this exercise was great in terms of learning for the officers and students alike.

“It’s important that we do different activities with students to show them exactly what police officers do as a job and build that trust and confidence in the police from an early age.

“The students all commented on how smiley and welcoming every police officer they met was, something they had not expected.”