Yesterday, the police hosted an open house in Osterode. And because I was interested in it, and also because I had nothing else todo, I went.
I initially thought that I wouldn’t have long when I arrived at the local station, because the internet told me that the event would end at 3pm. It ended at 5pm.
Off course, the police was the major player at this event, as it was hosted by them. They had dogs and horses and a water thrower. The only presentation I saw was that of the water thrower. People got wet.
I also heard a talk on cybercrime and had a station tour.
Of course, the police weren’t the only ones on exhibition. The fire, technical and various ambulance service, namely the Red Cross and the ASB, also had some gear and personnel there. During the water thrower presentation, an ambulance even had to go on a run.
Since the focus of the event were police and crime prevention though, the other services were more of a supporting element to those events. I was actually a bit more interested in those.
Nonetheless, I learned quite a bit about cyber security and daily police work during and due to this open house. Policing never ranked that high in my interests, and that hasn’t changed much, but I definetly think that each service has it’s place in society and is just as important as the next one.
Everyone knows what the fire department and ambulances do, but most people don’t actually know that much about police. I guess that’s because one would usually try to avoid run ins with them, because coming in contact with police usually means that they did something wrong. When the fire department comes, people usually require help. The same holds true for ambulances.
But the police is usually only called upon when there is crime or conflict, both things that most people tend to avoid whenever and whereever possible. In my opinion though, the police is just as, maybe even a bit more important than the other services.
You have to have courage for any of them, but being a cop is different. While firefighters and paramedics usually know what they’re into when they get the call. In ploicing everything can change quickly. From peaceful protest to full scale riots, from peaceful drunk to rowdy drunk. Everything can happen. Off course there are still treamendous risks ivolved with firefighting and, to an extend, with ambulancing, but I think police work is certainly more turbulent. We are living in a changing world, and I’m glad there are still people being cops, firefighters and paramedics, because none of those is an easy job.
More information on the open house (In German): https://www.osterode.de/regional/veranstaltungen/tag-der-offenen-tuer-bei-der-polizei-osterode-912007511-21351.html
Robin Ho Fotos 