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The Bruche Police Training Centre was a training complex for probationary police officers in the United Kingdom. It trained many thousands of officers over a period of around sixty years, until its closure in May 2006. The site in a suburb of Warrington was operated by CENTREX, the 'Central Police Training and Development Authority'. Police forces from the northern part of England and Wales sent new recruits to the centre for the main part of their basic training, which consisted of the development of important attitudes and behaviours, law training and officer safety tactics. Training included several role-play scenarios to enable the development and assessment of important abilities . Newly recruited probationary officers would spend a solid 15 weeks at Bruche before ever stepping onto the street, after having also spent time at their own Force's regional training centre(s).
The forces that sent officers to Bruche were mainly:
Probationary Officers resided on the site in dormitory blocks and conducted training which ranged from stopping vehicles, to public order training all conducted on-site.
Forces in other parts of the country usually sent their recruits to similar centres at Ashford in Kent, Aykley Heads in Durham, Ryton-on-Dunsmore in Warwickshire and Cwmbran in South Wales. When the police training system changed in 2006 Ashford, Cwmbran and Bruche centres closed, while Ryton is now used for other police and Immigration Service training. Aykley Heads (Durham) is now used to train Durham Constabulary and Northumbria Police Officers, as well as being Durham Constabulary HQ.
The centre was the site of Sandford, a mock village used for law enforcement training. The training village allowed police recruits could engage in simulations of routine police activities such as dealing with traffic accidents, football hooligans, and investigating robberies. Criminals, victims and bystanders were portrayed by civilian locals of the Bruche area.