Officers from outside the US, UK, N.Z. & Aust.?

[Sleuth]

While I enjoy interacting with officers from the former Empire, do we have many officers from other countries?

I seem to recall someone from Germany, another from Austria, and Tulleran from Norway, but who else in on here?

And the usual questions:
Are you armed, and what with?
What kind of cars do you drive?
What does your badge look like?

Thanks.

[Urkki]

Hello from Finland!

This seems to be the most active " law enforcement " - forum I

[USAcop]

I don't know much about Finland except they have lots of trees, Nokia and most importantly lots of good looking women.

Be safe out there brother.

[Bobbycop]

I've heard Finnish people can drink even the hardest Glaswegian under the table.

[KapsFB]

I know some folks from Tampere. We (wife & I) have been invited to come out anytime. Preferably summer. The wife was out there herself about 15 years ago. Says its awesome. Particularly Lapland. I'm definately interested and may plan a trip in the not to distant future - - - hey! hey!

[leonha2]

Austrian officers:
- we are armed (Glock 17 for patrol, Glock 19 for undercover, and Steyr MP 88 with 9 mm rounds for dangerous situations).
- usually we drive Volkswagen Golf Variant (station wagon), highway units at the moment have Volkswagen Sharan minivans, and we are supposed to get Volkswagen Touran (minivan, a little smaller than the Sharan)
- unfortunately I got no picture of the badge on my hard drive. I will try to find a link somewhere.

And I can assure you, Scandinavians can stand a lot of liquor! I

[Urkki]

Many of you seem to know the basics about Finland. Lotsa trees, lakes, beautiful ( in kind of a simple way ) nature and the harsh winter and warm summer with only couple ours of dark ( right now! ). Surely some Alps really would not do any harm here, leonha2 !! Women ( at least in 17 - 30 years of age are ) beautiful, but in Finland middle-aged female are not as, let

[Urkki]

Often the problem with those kind of a travel diaries is that they are made by university exchange students: maybe too high-culturally orientated ( j*** and classical first things to know about Finland? ) and again sophisticated.. Don

[Urkki]

car with water hose ( done it two times last 10 days.. ). Sorry about the long messages

[Urkki]

To leonha2: Spend time thinking about Steyr MP88 ( I thought about TMP / UMP ? ). Until I found out it

[Sleuth]

MY knowledge of Finland is limited to how you 'kicked Russian butt' in the Winter War (I'm a military history student). Some outstanding work by your ski troops and snipers prior to WWII.

So, we have a wider crowd than I had thought! How about Asia, no cops from Japan, Thialand (I spent a week there in 1971 as a sky marshall), or the rest of those countries? No South or Central Americans? Not one from Africa?

BTW, when I asked about badges, I mean the device, usually metal or cloth, worn on the outside of your uniform. I know Germany uses a cloth badge that hooks over a button (I have a Zoll [Customs] badge in my collection). How about the rest of you?

[Urkki]

I have to define some of my expressions, Soleil nuage.

Maybe I should have used some smilies, especially when speaking about ladies . The equality between two sexes has be come very high ( in family, business , even in police community! ). I personally feel no-need to think strong women as a threat, but kind of a humour that

[Prussian]

I'm not an active LE officer anymore, but I try to answer these questions for Germany.

Are you armed, and what with?

Yes, they are.
Handguns: depends on the state or federal service (all 9mm Luger):
P5 (aka Walther P5): Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia
P6 (aka SIG-Sauer P225/P228): Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Federal Border Guards, Federal Office of Criminal Investigation, Federal Custom Investigation Service
P7 (aka H&K P7M8): Bavaria, Lower Saxony
P10 (aka H&K USP Compact): Baden-Wuerttemberg, Saarland, Saxony
"car trunk gun": MP5 (aka H&K MP-5)
"SWAT-units" (states: SEK/MEK/PSK; federal: GSG-9/ZUZ): nearly everything unter the sun.

What kind of cars do you drive?

The patrol workhorses are vans (usually VW T models), next thing would be station wagons (various brands).

But almost every German (and to a lesser extend European) car can be found as a patrol car, from small VW Polos to fast Porsches.

What does your badge look like?

Arm badge: embroided with the coat of arms of the state/federation and above that the word "POLIZEI" (police), most of them are shown here: http://www.polizei.niedersachsen.de/...and/info3.html
Cap badge: metal 12-pointed star with the state coat of arms (e.g. Bavaria)

Plain cloth detectives have a metal disc in addition to the normal service ID card.

I know Germany uses a cloth badge that hooks over a button

You mean badges like this or this? These are semi-official unit badges for the esprit de corps not "police badges" that proof that one is a LE officer.

[Sleuth]

Thanks, Prussian, that is very informative. Where do the investigators carry/wear that metal disk? Is it on a neck chain (I see the hole in it).

The Zoll badge I have is on a leather backer. I understood it was their offcial badge, as American police wear on their shirts.

When I retired, my badge was placed ina lucite block and presented to me, and my number (562) was retired as well. Kind of cool to have what I carried for 26+ years. Our investigator (Special Agent) badges had a clip back, as we used special wallets that you could put in your shirt pocket, and have the badge hang outside. Worked fine, right up until you had to chase someone on foot!

[JohnKelly]

Hello Europe

Sleuth, good on you for getting this Thread up and running.

Very interesting to hear from our members in Europe and it does indeed add that extra international flavour.

I know from experience that European Law Enforcement Officers are very strong members of the International Police Association.

Cheers.