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As part of Radio 5 Live’s ‘Policing the UK’ series, Chris Warburton visited Meadowfield Police Training Centre in Durham to take a behind-the-scenes look into what police recruits get up to throughout their training course.

Damian Stevens, known as ‘Damo’, is a driving instructor - he took Chris out around the streets of Durham and gave him the front-seat experience of a traffic patrol vehicle.

Damian explained, after six months, recruits are enrolled into a training course that teaches them the particular style of driving required to be a response driver.

After 15 days training, recruits will do their final assessment day which Damian says has a high bar to pass.

"That's when the nerves show, none of them sleep, none of them have any breakfast", Damian said.

But there's a high bar for a reason.

"It can go spectacularly wrong, spectacularly quickly and that would have an effect on me and my family. As a driver I could lose my license, I could lose my liberty, my conscious if I injure someone".

This clip is from 29 January 2024.

Listen on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sounds.

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