Mutual Aid Support at Commonwealth Games

Following her stint providing mutual aid support to West Midlands Police colleagues at the Commonwealth Games, we hear from Carla from Police Scotland.

Getting the chance to be part of the mutual aid communications team for the Commonwealth Games was an incredible experience that I’ll never forget. Working alongside communications professionals from across the UK on such a major event is such a rare opportunity, and I would definitely recommend mutual aid to others.

My role was a mix of internal and external communications which is what I do in my own role at Police Scotland. I interviewed officers on their experiences of delivering a safe and enjoyable Birmingham 2022 and took some pictures whilst out and about in the city. It was a pleasure to write up some articles on the sporting history of West Midlands Police and about mutual aid specials who had travelled from across the UK. Part of my role also extended to social media updates and to send out news alerts through WMP’s WMNow system. This is an excellent external channel which meant we could reach approximately 120,000 people via email to give them safety advice and direct them to the Get Set for the Games website for travel information.

West Midlands Police gave us such a warm welcome, they even provided a training day which was really appreciated and any nerves around what my role would entail were soon gone! It felt like we were part of the family, not just the team, and everyone was so friendly and helpful.  

Seeing the way another police service work as well as doing my small part to help deliver a safe and enjoyable Birmingham 2022 gave me so much pride.