The police must rise to the challenges posed by change by developing new concepts for action, using new technologies and deploying existing resources more effectively and efficiently.
The diverse developments outlined above mean that the demands placed on police officers are both growing and constantly changing. Changing requirements go hand in hand with the need to adapt the skills required to perform their duties to the circumstances and requirements. Qualified personnel are the prerequisite for citizen-oriented, professional and lawful police work.
Interlinking initial and further training
While the professional qualification training for the senior police service teaches the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities for the first years of the profession, the aim of police training is to maintain, adapt, improve and expand the professional skills acquired through training, but also to regain them (e.g. after a longer period of leave).
The diverse tasks of the police require specialization in numerous areas of work. In addition, further training must be geared towards the specific requirements of the various functions and jobs.
The LAFP NRW - the training provider for the NRW police
As the training provider for the North Rhine-Westphalian police, the LAFP NRW guarantees practical, needs-based and constantly updated training with its four specialist areas (central training). The range of training courses on offer is the result of a needs survey carried out in the police authorities and a professional assessment by the three higher police authorities (NRW State Office of Criminal Investigation, NRW State Office for Central Police Services, NRW State Office for Police Training, Further Training and Personnel Matters) and the NRW Ministry of the Interior. This offer is designed, prepared, implemented and followed up by police officers with special didactic and methodological training and professional experience. The technical and didactic qualification of the teachers also takes place at the LAFP NRW.
Centralized training is effective and efficient
A wide range of police-specific training courses ensures successful and professional police work. The LAFP NRW is the central training provider for the uniform, effective and efficient training of the North Rhine-Westphalian police.
The central police standards are taught on the basis of the latest pedagogical findings at five locations specially equipped for police training and further training. The dovetailing of the content of basic and advanced training is of particular importance.
National and international developments relevant to the police are taken into account in our training courses in close cooperation with the NRW State Criminal Police Office (LKA NRW), the NRW State Office for Central Police Services (LZPD NRW) and the specialist police departments of the NRW Ministry of the Interior (IM NRW).
We also promote compliance with standards in local further training as part of targeted multiplier training and by providing personal advice and support to those responsible for further training in the police authorities.
Focus on the range of police tasks
Our training program, which our four departments are responsible for developing, includes specially designed training measures on the following topics
In this way, we enable 30,000 to 35,000 police officers each year to keep pace with developments relevant to the police and to develop new areas of police work through specialization.
Actuality, needs-based and practical relevance are our claim
Every year, the LAFP NRW reviews and updates the training courses on offer and assesses the needs of all police authorities, in consultation with the other higher police authorities LKA NRW, LZPD NRW and the IM NRW. On the basis of the annual training program approved by IM NRW, the police authorities book the training places they have registered with LAFP NRW using the online procedure.
Experienced and pedagogically and didactically trained police officers, as well as academics, create practice-oriented and adult-oriented training concepts according to uniform standards and carry out the training events, supported by external speakers if necessary.
In order to keep up to date, they can access the extensive and constantly expanding range of materials in the LAFP NRW library at the Selm and Neuss locations. Modern media in the form of e.g. explanatory films or videos - created by our own media services - round off the educational offerings. Police educational work is becoming increasingly digitalized. The LAFP NRW takes this into account with its own office.