Police officers swap patrol cars for skidoos
A team of Powys police officers swapped patrol cars for skidoos and the roads of Powys for snow drifts as they took part in a joint training course with the police of Finland.
Three PCs and a sergeant from the Brecon Roads Policing Team carried out a two-day winter driving skills course at the Finnish national driving school in Pieksmaämaki.
Dyfed-Powys Police Sgt Owen Dillon, PC Mark Jones, PC Julian Clegg and PC Rob Griffiths along with Janes Luckhurst from TISPOL flew to Helsinki, before driving the four-hour journey to Savonlinna, near the Russian border.
The officers spent several hours patrolling with two double-crewed traffic patrols meeting traffic officers on skidoos at the side of a frozen lake.
Sgt Dillon said: “It was great to see how they tackled policing a large rural area in extreme weather conditions with a small number of officers while using effective technology.
"We compared notes on Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR) technology, mapping systems, communications, shift patterns, pursuits and many other subjects. Both the Finnish police and ourselves learnt a lot from each other.”
During the course the officers explained tactics for safe stopping of vehicles preventing pursuits and other UK police driving skills.
The two-day course ended with timed laps of a snowy and icy course, difficult even for trained officers.
Sgt Dillon said: “It was a fantastic opportunity providing a perfect environment to push beyond our current capabilities improving our winter driving skills.
"When presented with our diplomas by the chief instructor he told us how impressed they had been with our driving and it was obvious we were well trained professional drivers. This is a great reflection of the advanced driver training we have in the UK."
