John Culatto
PEOPLE who call out the police in Gibraltar might be surprised to find they are attended to by a German who speaks perfect English.
That is because Anouk Brohl, 21, a police sergeant in training, is spending two weeks on the Rock with the Royal Gibraltar Police.
The Munich-born woman is taking time out from her three-year training to visit Gibraltar as part of a requirement to spend time outside Germany with another police force.
As a keen diver, Brohl chose Gibraltar because it allowed her to practise her hobby while also catching some rays of sun.
“A few of my colleagues are spending time in Sweden and one male student is in Switzerland,” she said.
“I looked at previous classes and I saw that someone else came here a few years ago so I knew it could be done.
“I wanted to improve my English, and I wanted some good weather and I’m a keen diver – so Gibraltar seemed perfect.”
Brohl is now in her second year of her training that allows her to jump straight to sergeant without having to be an officer.
But she was surprised how relaxed the local police officers were during one of her early shifts with a response team.
“A shift in Gibraltar tends to be slightly quieter than a typical shift in Munich but, other than that, I was actually surprised how similar it all was.
“On my first evening, I helped to deal with some driving offences but we also had to handle a tricky Mental Welfare case and several noise complaints.
“I noticed that, compared with Munich, they seem to be less
stressed and they solve more problems just by talking to people. “In Munich, police officers usually take a stricter approach to most problems.”
Brohl will complete the rest of her stay with the marine unit, criminal investigators and domestic abuse unit.
And when she has been off-duty she has found time to go scuba diving four times already, two of them on local wrecks.
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