St Helena officer enjoys "different environment" of policing in Leicestershire

From 4,000 people on a small island to 30,000 people at a football match – St Helena officer Garry Henry is enjoying a “different environment” of policing during his visit to Leicestershire.

The police officer has been in the county since Wednesday learning all about the force and working with different members of the team as well as sharing stories from his own policing career of more than 20 years.

The visit has included time with the firearms team learning all about their work to add to Garry’s own knowledge of working in firearms and liquor licensing.

But tomorrow (Saturday), will see Garry take on a whole new experience as he shadows Leicestershire Police Chief Inspector Steve Riley at the King Power Stadium working to ensure the safety of the fans as Leicester City take on Tottenham Hotspur.

Chief Inspector Steve Riley (left) with officer Garry Henry

 

Garry said: “It’s been a very interesting experience in Leicestershire and the whole team has been very helpful.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow – going from policing 4,000 people on a small island to a large football match. It’s a very different environment.”

The visit comes after Chief Inspector Riley previously spent two years in St Helena on a deployment programme working to strengthen the police service including its communications systems.

Since then, he has kept in touch with the team leading to Garry’s visit. In November 2017, Inspector Johnny Thomas also paid a visit from the South Atlantic island.

Chief Inspector Riley said: “It’s been great catching up and hearing all about things that have changed in St Helena, as well as hearing about what has stayed the same and makes St Helena so unique.”

Changes include a new emergency radio system which is now in place – something which Chief Inspector Riley played a part in during his time on the island.

Chief Inspector Riley said: “We carried out a major incident exercise while I was there to demonstrate the communications which would be required. This led to funding from the Foreign Commonwealth Office and now this new radio system has been in place since July.”

Another big change has seen St Helena adopt a 24/7 control room. Before officers would work shifts before going on-call but now a control room is continuously staffed.

Garry said: “It’s staffed by around two people during the day and one person at night so it is very different to here but it is a huge change for us and it’s great to now have these changes in place.”