Visit to Bramshill sees the start of relationship with the Ethiopia Federal Police

In October Supt Alison Queen, the International Policing Advisor for Africa and Angus Morris from the Security Sector Development Advisory Team visited Ethiopia to discuss and plan a UK Study Tour for the Ethiopian Federal Police at Bramshill. The British Embassy, on behalf of the EFP asked the NPIA to facilitate the tour to assist them in their reengineering process which they hope will bring about a dramatic change to policing activities across the nation. Quite a task!

They met with the Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa and other key representatives from the FCO. The Minister for Capacity Building summed up Ethiopia's perennial instability by saying that "hopelessness was the root cause of conflict in the Horn of Africa but hopefulness was the future". They were also introduced to some other very important and established residents of the Embassy - the giant tortoises who live in the grounds, who move surprisingly fast when you want to take their photo!

The visit also involved meeting senior police officers including the Director General of the EFP, the Honourable Workneh Gebeyehu. The officers had prepared long lists of subjects they wished to find out about during the study visit from the standard, 'how we investigate crime' to the more unusual, 'organisation of the mining unit!'. The challenge was going to be how to meet all their needs in 10 days!

The visit to Bramshill took place from the 10 - 19 November and was an outstanding success. The delegation arrived on one of the wettest and windiest Sunday evenings of the year but they were here on a mission, their hunger for knowledge was unabating. Some of the NPIA's finest gave presentations on a range of subjects including Community Policing, an area the EFP are committed to introducing in Ethiopia, Professional Standards and Counter Terrorism. The latter was presented by officers from the Counter Terrorism Unit at New Scotland Yard and the visit included a trip to the Custody Suite at Paddington Green Police Station, to see the cells that terrorist suspects are held in. The Ethiopians thought they were surprisingly luxurious!

The NPIA can feel proud that it will be instrumental in helping Ethiopia to transform its Federal Police and therefore its society. We must not underestimate the global significance of this; the politics of the Horn of Africa have directly impacted on Britain's security since 9/11.  Ethiopia acknowledges that it needs to move fast, and as the police are one of the first institutions that are affected, they need to show the citizens that they could change.

At the closing dinner, attended by the Ethiopian Ambassador, the delegation could not praise the NPIA enough, from the trainers to the Curator and the library staff, who gave them so much help. The Director General gave a moving speech and thanked everyone for helping them to achieve the objectives they had come for. They clearly are on a mission and we hope this is only the start of a journey of which we hope to play a significant part.

Supt Alison Queen