U.K. POLICE TRAINING

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29178, 12 April 1960, Page 25

U.K. POLICE TRAINING

Three-Year Course

(Special Corretpondent (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, April 11. London’s Metropolitan Police cadets are to have their own “Sandhurst.” A new police training school is to be built at Hendon which, it is hoped, will raise the standard of the Metropolitan Police, already high, to the finest in the world. The police cadet force will be completely reorganised to train about 1500 cadets who will provide about half of the normal yearly recruitment to the London force. The training of cadets will cover three phases. ' The first year, they will live in the training school where the emphasis will be on general education and physical training with special attention to moulding of character, power of leadership, self-reliance, courage, determination, and self-discipline. The youths will be directed with the object of gaining the highest possible level at general education examinations.

In the second year the youths will live in cadet section houses or hostels and continue their academic career and physical education under careful supervision. They will receive their first introduction to vocational work, but will take no active part in police administration. In the third year, from the age of 18, physical education will continue, but academic instruction will be dropped from the training programme and replaced by instruction in and preparation for police duties. Boys will be able to joint the corps at any age between 16 and 18i, taking their place in the scheme according to their qualifications. The first commandant of the school will be Colonel N. A. C. Croft, a pre-war polar explorer, who has been for three years in charge of the Army apprentices' school.