BARNSLEY police chief Scott Green has returned from Sierra Leone after an ‘intense’ two weeks teaching local police how to deal with major outbreaks of public disorder.
District Commander Scott Green and public order training constable Phil Reed visited the west African country to deliver Gold Command level training on dealing with public order situations.
The two week programme saw Chf Supt Green and PC Reed share their specialist knowledge to help and prepare senior officers in Sierra Leone to deal with similar incidents should they arise - particularly as they prepare for the general election next month.
With no 999 equivalent to phone, dealing with a major incident becomes extremely difficult but despite the challenges faced by officers and military personnel in Sierra Leone, they were eager to learn from the two South Yorkshire officers.
Chf Supt Green said the classroom sessions were intense, with lots of in-depth and complex information to get across but there was also the added pressure of having some of the most senior police officers learning from them too.
He said: “Delivering Gold Command training to senior police officers and colleagues can always be a bit of a daunting task as there’s so much to fit in, but we also had the Deputy Inspector General on our course, the second most senior police officer.
“It was an intense two weeks but it was great to share our experiences and best practice with them. Everyone was really engaged and interested in what we were talking about, expressing a keen interest in learning from us and you can’t ask for much more than that really.
“Although of course this wasn’t like visiting any other police force in the UK, we did also learn things from them as well which was great.
“On a more personal level, visiting this beautiful country and meeting the people who were all so warm and welcoming was a reminder of all of the sorts of things we tend to take for granted in this country such as schools, the NHS and policing for example.
“The people living there are amazing though, they are so resilient considering the hardships they have encountered, including ebola and civil war.”
The two officers were handpicked by the College of Policing to deliver the training, as licensed public order training providers and the hope is that officers in Sierra Leone will be able to pass the learning on to future colleagues to help them become self-sufficient in the future.
During the weekend between the weeks of intense teaching, Chf Supt Green and PC Reed used one of their rest days to visit a school, set up by Anna Vines, who moved to Sierra Leone from the UK to build the Ruth Vines Memorial School.
Chf Supt Green said: “The school, set up by Anna in a village called Mayenkineh, was built in a rock-breaking community where people essentially make their living by breaking rocks down and selling them on for building materials. It’s a very impoverished community where children have next to nothing.”
PC Reed’s wife, who is a teacher at a Rotherham school, donated some sports equipment while Chf Supt Green took some sports kit over, donated by the parents of children who play at Sheffield Tigers Rugby Club.
Chf Supt Green added: “The children living in Mayenkineh didn’t have any sports equipment available to them at all, so it was an absolute joy seeing them enjoy it and to know they’ll get use and enjoyment from it long after we’ve gone.
“I’ve since been sent pictures of the children playing their first football match against a neighbouring village team in their kit.
“The whole experience from delivering the public order training to being able to see the children benefit from the sporting equipment was such a unique experience and an amazing opportunity which I’m incredibly grateful for.”
