<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/2/1581349480541.jpeg" alt="Colonel Tigran Yesayan with the Armenia Police Force speaks through an interpreter during the reception for the officers who went through two weeks of training and observation at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center and the Hutchinson Police Department." />
 <figcaption>Colonel Tigran Yesayan with the Armenia Police Force speaks through an interpreter during the reception for the officers who went through two weeks of training and observation at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center and the Hutchinson Police Department.</figcaption>
 </figure>YODER,
 Kan. — The Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center and Hutchinson Police
 were host to a group of law enforcement officers from the Republic of 
Armenia. The officers were on hand to train and learn the way of police 
work in the United States. “Armenia just had a peaceful 
revolution…in 2018 and they had a very corrupt government,“ Audie 
Holloway Senior Law Enforcement Development Advisor at the US Embassy in
 Armenia said. “Now that new government wants to make a new reformed 
police.” Holloway says coming to Kansas came from a connection the state and the country made during the breakup of the Soviet Union.“For
 16-years the State department has had a state program with countries of
 the former Soviet Union,” Holloway said. “Kansas and Armenia...decided 
to be partners. We started this partnership with the police here last 
year.” The head of the police unit was Tigran Yesayan who is a 
Deputy Head Police Colonel in Armenia who says it’s time to build trust 
among the county’s citizens.“Armenia is going through a very 
serious process which is apparently necessary for Armenia. The process 
of changing the image of police in our country,” Yesayan said. “The 
reform which is going on at this moment is police officers enjoy more 
trust and respect.”Yesayan says they want the change to happen soon.“We
 want to make it in a short period of time,” Yesayan said. “But 
naturally we understand that change has to occur in the heads of the 
people not on paper. And in order to make a change in the heads of the 
people, we need time.”The group also spent significant time with the Hutchinson Police Department during their two-week stay. “It
 was a great honor having them here,” Police Chief Jeff Hooper said. “ I
 think it was just as good experience for my officers as it was for 
them.”Hooper says the department took the officers through most facets of their operations including a tour of the 911 center.“They
 don’t have what we traditionally call a communication center, a 911 
center, so some of their officers sat in the 911 center,” Hooper said. 
“They were able to see how our computer technology works, how we can 
dispatch by GPS coordinates and things like that.”Hooper says the officers also got a look at how things are done in the field. “Just
 getting them out into the field with our officers and just an exchange 
of different laws they have there for search and seizure versus the laws
 we have here,” Hooper said. “ we put them out in regular patrol and 
then did some warrant searches and some undercover operations. And the 
had the opportunity to see different aspects of law enforcement in 
America.A reception was held for the group Friday afternoon 
before the officers were presented with some gifts and photos were 
taken. The group is facing a 30-hour flight back home on Saturday.

Armenian police officers finish two-week stay in Kansas