Since she was a little girl, Kimberly Klein wanted to be a police officer. Now that dream is coming true. Klein is spending three weeks as an intern with the Derby Police Department, but when she’s done, she won’t be staying here, but taking her newly found knowledge back home near Frankfurt, Germany, some 4,888 miles from Derby.
Klein is enjoying her stint in America.
“It’s great here, she said. “I really like the culture and all the Americans are always so nice to me.” The 24-year-old is not a total stranger to the U.S. or the Derby area as in 2010-2011 Klein stayed with the local family of Eldora and Randy Brock while an exchange student at Rose Hill High School, where she graduated. She is staying with them again.
One major difference between policing in the two countries is the amount of training.
In Germany, officers have to undergo three years of training, including three internships, before going out on the streets full time. It’s much shorter in the U.S., although officers often have military police or other security backgrounds.
Another big difference, she said, is that Derby’s police usually drive solo in their patrol vehicles, whereas in Germany, they always go as a pair. And while the German police are armed, civilians usually aren’t, as their gun control laws are much stricter.
(Read more: Derby News | derbyinformer.com)