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.