Lexi's Adventures: London: Day Three: Lecture on Policing, On The Tube, and Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre

Today was not as busy of a day as I have had (and tomorrow is certainly going to be very, very busy), but it was still exciting and I got to see a bit and I road on the tube for the first time since getting here!

We had a lecture in the morning from a police officer in Norwich, Jon Bendall. He was a really great speaker and he was very familiar with the differences between English and American policing (and there are quite a few differences). I learned about the differences between their policing styles, such as obviously English police officers generally do not carry firearms (although apparently there are about 10 on duty each day that do carry firearms) and they are beginning to carry OC spray (they have a different name for it) as well as tazers. However, they aren't generally used. Jon mentioned that he prefers to just talk to people and if that doesn't work, he can always just physically bring them down. I feel like that is a bit different than in the US. Officers in the US are able to rely upon their firearms if they need it, whereas the officers here in England do not quite have that luxury unless it is a serious situation, like an act of terrorism (which we just saw in Paris today).

They also do not have to meet the same strenuous requirements as officers do in the US. In fact, they are attempting to reform that system a bit and bring up education and physical requirements (which apparently many officers would not pass a more stringent physical test right now). They do have different levels of officers. Apparently the pay is not quite as good as it is in the US until you start getting higher, then they make much more than our higher ups in the police departments make. The pay differences were actually quite interesting. Apparently the person who makes decisions about the police departments has never even worked in police, but I think it's like that out here in certain aspects too. Bureaucracy and all.

We had lunch today again on our own. I walked through the Waterstone's, which is similar to Barnes & Noble, except it is so much bigger! I think there were four floors to this bookstore. I could have spent hours in there looking at the different books. I almost bought a few True Crime books for crimes that happened in the UK. I had to keep myself away from the Italian/Sicilian mafia books because I could get those out in the US pretty easily. So many books.

We got on the tube today to go to the Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre, which marked my first time on the tube since arriving in London. It was not bad at all, actually. It was similar to our trains in Colorado, except there are quite a few more lines and there are different platforms you have to get on, which can be pretty confusing. Luckily we had a guide and he just told us what we needed to do. I've been starting to make sense of the train maps though, bit by bit.

The Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre was small but rich with history and relics. It was really cool to see, especially because they have such an old police force. They say they were the first organized police force, but Scotland argues they started theirs 3 days earlier. London was the first organized police force of their size. Our guide went over the different ways that policing has changed from the clothing (he let people try on the clothing) to the different truncheons used. They used the old air raid siren and that was definitely interesting. This police force is so old and it's really cool to see how they have tried to adapt to the changing times, especially seeing the gas mask from the WWII warfare. Our guide, who has been retired for 9 years after 30 years of police service, said that he doesn't think London needs guns yet. Right now they are dealing with the crime well enough without having to carry firearms, However, that could change, especially since times are a-changing.

That was my day for today. I didn't do much in the evening as I had quite a headache and ended up taking a five hour nap (oops!). Tomorrow is a jam-packed day. We are meeting at 9:30 am with my teacher and his wife to go to the Twinings Tea Museum, go to the Strand, as well as see the London Museum and the Sherlock Holmes exhibit (!!!!), and then end the night at 6 pm with a Jack the Ripper walking tour! It should be a good day tomorrow! Pictures below that were taken today.