The week of my tour as class captain for Cope 2 began on Sunday 30 November 2008 with a trip to Paris, France. The group arrived in Paris at midday on the Sunday. On Monday 1 December the team proceeded to "Prefecture de Police Nationale"  where an officer from the Police Nationale gave us an overview of the organisation, structure, missions and policing methods. Afterwards we visited the Control Rooms to learn how they work, depending on the importance and type of crisis. In the afternoon we visited the "Commissariat XI" of Paris. This unit is like a BCU in the UK. In this unit they gave us an overview of the work they do in this area. We visited the cells where they put the persons in custody and were shown the materials that they use in this unit.

On Tuesday 2 December the group visited the Montreuil based headquarters of "La Gendarmerie Nationale de Paris." The visit started with an overview of the structure, mission and of the "Gendarmerie." This was followed by Criminal Analysis and an overview of Cybercrime and how they work in policing. We also visited the department of the Criminal Research Institute of Gendarmerie (fingerprints etc) This was followed by a reception for the team in the Gendarmerie Restaurant.

In the afternoon session a Gendarmerie Major explained in a presentation, the work of the Criminal Research Institute, especially about Forensics. He gave us an overview of the history of the Institute, the missions that he had made and the structure of the Institute. We then visited the Forensic Department, an officer in each department explained the work carried out and each specialisation (audio, video, cameras, computers) before we returned to the hotel.

On the 3 December the group left Paris for London in the morning, arriving back at Bramshill in the afternoon. We then had a session in "Policing in the Information Age - opportunities and challenges" with Mr Ray Bell.

On the 4 December we heard from the CEOP Representative about the seriousness of child abuse and exploitation.

On 5 December Mr Ray Bell talked about the Information System and importance of MIRSAP and HOLMES systems to help the investigator to get information more easily.

Charles Saade