Andy Udall's Palestine Blog

Andy Udall is a serving Police Officer, (Chief Inspector) with the West Mercia Police, formerly based at Telford, Shropshire in command of the delivery of Local Policing.  His service with West Mercia saw him working within the Operations Support Dept and later, the Force Operations Dept with significant experience in Command and Control, working as a Force Duty Inspector and then in command of the Force’s Roads Policing Unit and also as a Silver Firearms Incident Commander.  He is married with two children and at the age of 47 years and with 28 years police service, decided he wanted a total change in his working environment and needed fresh challenges.  He certainly got his wish and through the Stabilisation Unit, is now seconded to the EUPOL COPPS, (European Union Police Co-ordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support – (what a mouthful – only Brussels could think of that one !)) mission, based in Ramallah, Palestine, where he arrived on 16th March, as the mission’s expert advisor in Command and Control.  He is the first UK serving Police Officer to serve on the mission.  He lives in Jerusalem and travels daily to Ramallah, but his activities take him to all locations within the West Bank. (The EUPOL COPPS mission is not mandated to cover Gaza).  As he works through the challenges, daily frustrations, cultural differences and social activities of mission life, he hopes to share his thoughts and experiences with you.