Texas Officers' Blog
Italy 2008
Being a Graduate of the Leadership Command College and the Region 6 Director of the LCC Alumni Association, I have always enjoyed the training and fellowship I have experienced over the last 10 years. Professional upper management training and networking is extremely important to me. I have been in Law Enforcement for nearly 30 years and training and new experiences are very important to me. I took part in the trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico in 2007 and it was a fantastic experience.
I was fortunate enough to expand my networking and gain great knowledge when I was selected to participate in the International police Exchange trip to Italy and Switzerland in April of 2008.
Let me start by saying that Carolyn Martinez, the program Director, was a great guide. Everything was set up in advance for us when we arrived at the Milan Airport. We were met and greeted by our Italian hosts who transported us to wonderful accommodations in Ivrea, Italy. The City was beautiful and the Italians were very accommodating and gracious.
While in Italy, we toured Law Enforcement stations, Communications Centers, Police Academies, the Prison system, the Carabenieri (Military Police) Headquarters and Museum, the Port Authority in Genova, and several other facilities and Law Enforcement functions. I must say that I was extremely impressed with the professionalism and the technology of the various levels of Police government. I was also impressed that all of the different Law Enforcement and Military bodies are on the same page and they communicate very effectively with one another.
We made trips to several cities (Milan, Torino, Ivrea and others) and each one was unique, educational and a great experience. We were met by Italian officials everywhere we went and their hospitality was gracious, pure and generous. We were able to mingle with brother and sister officers in all of these cities and my network expanded many times with the new friends I made.
We also traveled to Lugano, Switzerland. We were met at the Swiss border and given a motorcycle escort to the beautiful City of Lugano. We were met by our wonderful host, Roberto Torrente, Chief of the Lugano Police Department. We were given a tour of their headquarters and we were shown a wonderful display of police equipment, motorcycles, cars, etc. Their equipment was very impressive and their operations were very efficient and professional.
I could write about this experience forever. I will always remember the hospitality afforded to us by the Italian and Swiss Law Enforcement personnel. I hope to repay them when they visit Texas. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my Mayor, Calvin Hodde, who realized the educational value of this trip. I would also like to thank Carolyn Martinez and the LCC staff for their expertise and guidance (and certainly for the opportunity!). Last, but not least, I would like to thank my family for “holding down the fort” while I travel to these wonderful countries to expand my horizons.
I would strongly encourage all LCC graduates to look into this program and apply for a future trip to one of the countries offered. If you have the opportunity, go with an open mind, absorb the experience and be gracious to your hosts; you will come home a richer person for it!
Poland 2008
Hello everyone! Just a few words about our two week trip to Poland which was organized by the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas at San Houston State University. I was honored to be chosen to form a group of 8 Police Chiefs and management level police officers from across the state to participate in an International Police Exchange Program. Words cannot express my profound gratitude to LEMIT and our Polish National Police hosts for this life-changing opportunity! The trip was fantastic. We learned about the Polish National Police in all of their various departments from the city level to county, to capitol police, water police, bomb squad and their advanced forensics laboratories. We also took in quite a bit of sightseeing from the Warsaw castle to Czestochowa City and the great cathedral there which houses the icon of “Our Lady of Czestochowa”. We visited Auschwitz where one could feel the souls very near who had went to such cruel deaths by the Nazis all those years ago. As the group passed by the thousands of pairs of little children’s shoes and the hundreds of pounds of human hair taken from those unfortunate souls, there were very few dry eyes in the group. We witnessed there how horrible inhumanity can prosper when good men do nothing in the face of evil. We visited Warsaw’s beautiful city park where at a live concert, we heard Chopin played in his native land. We visited the Polish Capitol Police Operations Center and were amazed at how advanced and technologically sophisticated the Capitol Police were in their operations. At the forensics laboratories, we were very impressed by a new technology developed locally where a foot could actually be matched to a sole-less shoe! We were hosted by the General who commands the entire Polish National Police Force to a dinner and were honored by the Commandant of the National Police Academy with an invitation to his quarters afterward. We found a brotherhood/ sisterhood amongst the Polish National Police that made us all feel much closer than the geography would have us believe. This beautiful land that had produced Copernicus and Chopin was still producing innovators in the entire spectrum of human endeavors from science to public service. We traveled by Gondola high into the Polish Alps and climbed to a gorgeous mountain range where it seemed you could touch heaven from the great height. All along the way we fellowshipped with our gracious Polish hosts and learned that we police officers are very much the same despite the cultural distances. We witnessed the professionalism and modernity of the Polish National Police in their training and technology and were thoroughly impressed by their efficiency and the progress made since the change from communism not so long ago. I have included a link to some of the pictures we took around the country in our two week trip. I hope you find them interesting as I did.
Chief Ken HolderCaney City Police Department
Poland 2007 Photos, Reports & Letters
Report on Poland 2007 by Captain David Rider (LCC Class 28), Austin Independent School District Police Department
Dzien Dobry (Hello in Polish),
I was fortunate enough to be selected to participate in the 2007 International Police Program (IPP) and travel to Poland to study with the Polish National Police. Wow, what an experience! Having never traveled abroad before, I was not sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised and I will attempt to relate my "once in a lifetime" experience in a few short words.
Report on Poland 2007 by Lt. Joe Morris (LCC Class 26), Randall County Sheriff's Office - Amarillo
I was selected to participate in the International Police Program (IPP) sponsored through Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice and the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas. I was not just representing LEMIT but Texas and my Department as well.
2007 Study Abroad in Poland by Joey Sanders
At this time, I am less than one week removed from traveling over-seas to Poland as a fortunate participant in the 2007 "Study Abroad" program offered by The Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas and Sam Houston State University . Personally, it is difficult to describe in words my experiences abroad, for this was my first visit to Europe.
Report on Poland 2007 from Sgt. Tom Libby, Oak Ridge North Police Department
Recently I had the honor of attending the International Police Program sponsored by SHSU. I traveled to Warsaw , Poland for a two week period and was amazed at how far a country has come since becoming a democracy after so many years of communism.
Click Here to View Photos, Reports & Letters from Poland 2006
Click Here to View Photos, Reports & Letters from Poland 2005
Click Here to View Photos, Reports & Letters from Poland 2004
Click Here to View Photos, Reports & Letters from China 2005
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