POLICE TRAINING CENTRE in Legionowo - Inne - Centrum Szkolenia Policji

The Police Training Centre was established on August 27, 1990. Its foundation was the infrastructure and staff of four closed down schools of the ministry of the interior. Since the day it came into being to the present moment, the Police Training Centre has gone through a deep evolution: its organisation structure has changed and the essential training profile has developed. This process of programme transformations is an expression of adjusting the training activities of the Centre to the changing needs and preferences of the Police. One of the significant structural changes of the PTC was the incorporation, at the end of 1992, of the Police School for Handlers and Dog Training at Sulkowice. That school already had a long tradition. The training of policemen and dogs was conducted there from April 1, 1956, at first as the independent Department of Dog Training of the Citizen Militia (MO). This is now the Department of Police Cynology at the PTC.  Another significant structural change took place in July of 1998 when the International Specialist Police Training Centre (MCSSP) was opened. It is organisationally situated at the Police Training Centre.
In 1995, the PTC solemnly celebrated its 5th anniversary. On this occasion the Centre was presented with a standard endowed by the people of the city of Legionowo.
At present, the Police Training Centre conducts teaching activities in three, considerably distant from each other, locations:

• in Legionowo, where the main headquarters is situated and the majority of training activities take place,
• in Sułkowice (located about 80 km from Legionowo and 40 km from the centre of Warsaw), where training of handlers and dogs is conducted,
• in Kal (near Węgorzewo in the Masurian Lake District), where water police are trained.

In total, these centres occupy over 110 ha of area (Legionowo:  over 62 ha, and Sulkowice: 49 ha). Every day in these centres about 1100 policemen and policewomen attend a dozen or so simultaneously conducted courses.

The Police Training Centre performs tasks arising from the accepted in the Police Force system of training at the basic and specialist levels. In accordance with the sharing of tasks among police schools, the PTC is solely responsible for training in the following areas:

• traffic police
• water police
• bomb disposal and pyrotechnics
• dog handling

The training offer presented by the Centre is very wide and comprises about 80 kinds of training. The duration of training ranges from a few days to 10 months.  The training, among others, is for police officers performing anti-terrorist tasks, police officers dealing with minors, training in the field of  drug- related crimes, training in tactics and techniques of intervention, training improving driving and riding a motorcycle, training for operators of video-recording devices, for policemen involved in road techniques and ecology, for those from accident emergency, for those in charge of inspections, and training connected with osmology (for handlers of dogs used in identification of human scents). For police officers of all services training in the field of information technology and foreign language study is offered. As a token of a high assessment of teaching results the Interpol has granted the PTC its accreditation for training in the field of dactylography.
Apart from training, the PTC is a place where examinations for the first police rank in a given corps are administered.
The Police Training Centre also functions as the conference background for the Police Force. More than 1200 meetings, that is, conferences, seminars, councils, and briefings attended by about 50 000 people have been organised up to now. The fact of organising in Legionowo so many international conferences for criminal police and militia and international conferences on criminal prevention has essentially contributed to the establishment, within the framework of the PTC, of the centre having the character of the European specialist police school, i.e. The International Specialist Police Training Centre.

1990-2005 GRADUATES

In 15 years of its existence over 71 334 people graduated from different kinds of courses at the Police Training Centre (this number does not include the graduates from training organised by the International Specialist Police Training Centre). The training organised by the Centre is not limited to police only but is open to other employees supervised by the minister of internal affairs and administration, and people employed in other institutions of law enforcement.

TEACHING AND LOGISTIC INFRASTRUCTURE

The Police Training Centre has got 75 teaching rooms and 2 lecture halls (250 and 100 seats respectively). Some classrooms function as specialist workshops and laboratories furnished with  equipment and devices suitable for conducting practical teaching (information technology, criminal science, languages). The International Specialist Police Training Centre has two lecture halls at its disposal, both air conditioned and furnished with audio-visual equipment and booths for simultaneous translation in 5 languages.
The Police Training Centre has under its administration almost 1300 places in the dormitories: 1100 in Legionowo and 170 in Sulkowice. It has also a hotel for 80 guests, a gym, a swimming pool, a stadium, a fitness room, a sauna, and two shooting ranges – one indoor and the other located in the open air.

LIBRARY

The main part of the collection of the Central Police Library includes publications from the field of safety and public order, organisations and activities of police forces in Poland and worldwide, criminology, law, forensic medicine, and social, economic and political sciences. The Central Police Library collects both domestic and foreign publications, police publications, legal acts, and police abstracts. The Library has also a few 19th century publications, and those from before WWII.
The Central Police Library is the most abundant library in the field of internal affairs and administration. The resources are used for teaching, research, and informational and popularisation purposes. At present the Library has 268 579 volumes. The Central Police Library has a very valuable collection of periodicals totalling approximately 48 000 volumes (984 titles).
The library of the Police Training Centre functions also as a public library for the residents of Legionowo. A large number of students from regional universities make use of the Library as well.

PUBLISHING HOUSE

It is one of the tasks of the Police Training Centre to conduct publishing activities to satisfy the training needs of both the PTC and the Police. The edition ranges from 500 to 5000 copies which, in connection with the specialist character of the majority of titles, meets the demand shown by schools, training centres, and police units. The authors of the PTC's publications are not only the Police employees but also a large number of people from scientific circles. Among others, the PTC publishes  the Dziennik Urzędowy of the Police Headquarters and the Biuletyn Prawny.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The International Specialist Police Training Centre (MCSSP), established on July 24, 1998, is the centre   responsible for  improving professional skills of police officers from Central and Eastern Europe in the field of combating the most dangerous crimes including transnational crimes. The Centre functions also as a forum for exchanging experience and knowledge of police forces from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Bulgaria.
MCSSP  is also a place for meetings and training of representatives of  law enforcement agencies and justice departments from Western Countries including the USA. These are representatives of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms), Secret Service (protection of the President and fighting money forgery), DOJ (Department of Justice), and US Customs. The International Specialist Police Training Centre co-operates with many police organisations like the MEPA (Central European Police Academy), CEPOL (European Police Academy), and AEPC (European Association of Police Schools).
Between July 1998 and June 30, 2005, the total of 12785 participants (including 2384 from abroad) took part in the training administered by MCSSP.