The Lancashire Constabulary opened their doors this weekend to give the public a chance to ‘look behind the badge’ and get an insight into the different roles officers and staff play in keeping the public safe and secure on a daily basis.
Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner Clive Grunshaw was there with staff from his office, showcasing some of the projects they are involved in and the work they are driving forward to benefit Lancashire’s residents. This was a real opportunity for local people to learn more about their roles.
Originally the open day was to be staged on just the Sunday, with 8000 tickets available but it proved to be so popular that an extra 2500 tickets were issued for the Saturday.
The two days were fun filled with fantastic displays from the police dogs showing how hard they work and the situations that they need to be able deal with. The mounted constabulary also displayed the excellent skills of their horses with coordinated movements and dealing with large crowds of people.
All around the grounds there were many of the vehicles past and present on display for all visitors to see and also test what it might feel like to drive them.
The officers were more than willing to answer questions and demonstrate how the equipment worked.
Visitors were also treated to a tour of the communications rooms, starting with a room of vintage technology from days gone by and then into the modern day communications hub, which in any 24 hour period handles more than 3000 calls from across the whole of Lancashire.
You could also try your hand at being a detective, along side the people who do it on a daily basis, working with the many interactive displays in the Forensics marque. There were presentations of Evofit, an up-to-date identity facial recognition system, computer fraud demonstrations and staff on hand to explain how new sophisticated techniques can be applied to fingerprinting.
The whole weekend was a fantastic success and many of the attendees we spoke to said that they had really enjoyed it and hadn’t realised just how much the police and various related staff at the Lancashire constabulary do on our behalf.
The Saturday event was due to have a police helicopter to land and be available for inspection by the public. Unfortunately, cloud was too low to make a safe landing; nevertheless, the pilot of a police helicopter made sure that visitors didn’t miss out by doing several flybys thrilling the crowds by blasting out the audible sirens while the crew were taking photographs and waving to everyone.
Did you go to the police event at hutton this weekend? Did you enjoy the shows? Let us know in the comments below.