Our first appointment on Wednesday was with an official from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Griff is writing about that visit at his blog. You’ll have to see that for more details on that meeting.
But after that meeting, we got an insider’s look at the new offices of the British Home Office. They’ve been in their new offices for less than a week.
The Home Office is, by my best estimate, akin to a combination of our FBI and Department of Justice, with quite a bit of our Department of Homeland Security, all rolled into one. As you might imagine, they are the tip top in security. Tip top, I say.
We got inside the Home Office to meet with this guy:
That’s Mike Alderson holding an Eden Prairie Police Department insignia patch. Mike is with the Citizen Focused Policing Team of the Police Reform Unit of The Home Office. Mike was interested in meeting us because he has become a regular reader of two American Police Chief blogs: Chief Gary Smith in Northfield and Chief Dan Carlson in Eden Prairie. I know both of them well. I’m proud to say that I happened to have hired both of them for their current positions. They are both very good Chiefs, and I’m a good guesser.
Mike is currently involved in helping to train police officers in the UK, and actually all over the world. He travels extensively in Europe, the Middle East, and the Caribbean training police officers on what it means to be a “customer focused” police officer and department. He gave me a great Power Point presentation on the subject that I intend to share with my PD when I get home. It’s great stuff.
Mike really likes what Chief Smith and Chief Carlson are doing with their blogs. He uses screen captures of their blogs as examples of how police can connect with their communities in his presentations around the world.
You may not have realized it before, but what Gary and Dan are doing with their blogs in their respective communities is at the forefront in a coming revolution in community relationship building activities for police departments.
Chief Dan Carlson
Chief Gary Smith
