Beds Police Taught Polish

26 August 2010, 06:00

Some of our police officers are being taught Polish from today, in an attempt to break down the barriers within the Polish community.

Five police officers and five PSCOs from Bedford start a 10-week course today (Thursday), spending two hours each week being taught the language.

The course is being run by the Polish British Integration Centre in Bedford to help neighbourhood police officers and community support officers communicate with the growing Polish community.

Officers will learn basic phrases, including asking someone their name or if they have any injuries, to help them in incidents.

Sergeant Nick Case from Bedfordshire Police tells Heart how it all came about:

“This got rolling because of an officer on my team that described to me some problems that he had with a victim of an assault who is Polish and he had difficulties in communicating with that person. So I looked at how we could address that and together with the Polish British Integration Centre we’ve come up with a language course.”

The 10-week course starts at 2pm at the Polish Club on Alexandra Road.