What I did this Summer by Larry Larimore

What I did?  Well, my wife and I went on a once in a lifetime vacation, with a little work thrown in.  Here is how it started...

The first time I really took notice of Shawnee Fire Department’s Firefighter Exchange Program was at Fire Chief Hudson’s retirement reception last Fall when the Fire Chief of Shawnee’s Sister City in Erfurt, Germany sent a letter of appreciation for Chief Hudson’s support of the program that sent Shawnee firefighters to Erfurt every other year and entertained firefighters and their families from Erfurt during the opposite years.  After that I wondered what it would take to start up a similar program involving our officers and the officers from the Erfurt Police Department.

I began asking questions to past and present Shawnee firefighters involved in the exchanges and found that they spoke very fondly of their experiences and they had come to enjoy a genuine professional and personal bond between the two departments and their staff.  The Shawnee firefighters invited Major Moser and me to meetings while they planned an itinerary for the Erfurt firefighters visit this past June.  I next spoke with Dennis Busby of Shawnee’s Sister City Committee and asked for his support in exploring the possibility of setting up a similar program for our two departments’ officers.  And it was that discussion is what led to our visit to Europe in June of this year.

My wife and I traveled with eight members of Shawnee’s Sister City Committee to visit Shawnee's Sister Cities in Pittem, Belgium, and Erfurt, with a side trip to Prague in the Czech Republic sandwiched in between.  In Pittem, I met the Belgium Federal Police Chief Claude Vandepitte.  Chief Vandepitte oversees a regional police force about the same size as our department in which the City of Pittem is included.  He spoke to our group about his department and crime in his region and in Belgium. 

Here is a photo from our meeting which shows their “mobile report desk (van)” leaving to go on a call for service:

In Erfurt, I met with Chief Jürgen Loyen; his Chief of Staff Hans-Peter Goltz; and their department’s staff representative Anja Keßler.  Chief Loyen told me about his department; we shared similarities and differences in public safety and law enforcement in our countries; and what was supposed to be a one hour meeting turned into three and I was late getting out of town.

Here is a photo of the Erfurt PD Staff, my interpreter Gabby, and me:

As an example of how friendly the folks were in Erfurt - there was a large festival going on in Erfurt during our visit, and while I attended an outdoor concert I met an off-duty Erfurt police officer, who, when he found out who I was, immediately whipped out his badge case and gave me his hat badge. The young officer said while he assigned to the Gera PD in Germany he participated in a police officer exchange program where is visited Fort Wayne, Indiana.  He said he would love to visit Kansas City.

Here is a photo from the outdoor concert (the Cathedral of St. Severus built from 1154–1476 is in the right background) and a photo of the police memorabilia I received from Erfurt:

This trip was one that my wife and I will never forget.  It is right up there with my deployment to Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.  Opportunities to get out of town and visit interesting places and people are just too good to pass up.  In Europe, we saw history that was incomparable to anything I have seen in the United States (..the town of Erfurt was first mentioned in in year 742 and their first Town Hall dates back to the Eleventh Century).  Also for me, I got to “talk shop” with peers from other countries and experienced their great hospitality.  In both Pittem and Erfurt, our group was treated like royalty and taken to all the sights.  We were fed so much great food that I did not want to think about eating when we came back (I even got my barbeque fix in a restaurant in Erfurt by way of a plate of smoked spiced-rubbed ribs). 

So what is next? Through my visits, I hope that Belgium Police Chief Vandepitte will travel as a guest of the Sister City Group from Pittem when they visit next year, and that Erfurt Police Chief Loyen will travel as a guest of the Sister City Group from Erfurt when they visit next year.  I invited them both to come see the Shawnee Police Department and meet our staff; and I told them we would introduce them to law enforcement in Kansas City. 

Since this was mostly a vacation for the wife and me, I will close with this last picture.  It is a night shot of the Charles Bridge (founded in the year 1347) with the Prague Castle (founded in the year 880), which is the largest castle in the world, lit up in the background.  As you can imagine, it was awesome...