Vera is a tough woman. 40 years old, a lawyer, mother of three sons. She worked as a senior public prosecutor for more than a decade before deciding to make another change. To become a policewoman, to train for the higher service. And now there is this moment that visibly overwhelms her and moves her to tears. Freshly dressed, she stands in front of the mirror in the NRW police clothing center in Lünen. In uniform for the first time! "I feel like Charlie in the chocolate factory! It's crazy. This really is my new world now!" she says.
Two seasons with 16 episodes of "Team 110 - Die Serie" can now be seen on the NRW police YouTube channel. Scenes from everyday life in the police force, shown from the perspective of young people who describe their path to the NRW police force in a variety of ways. Up close, authentic, informative and sometimes touching. It's about house searches, interrogations, drug finds, accidents, missing persons and domestic violence. It's about Kira and Vincent, Florian and Vera or the twins Laura and Lisa, two trainee detectives who combine top-class sport with their studies. Shot without a script and without filters.
"The idea came about in 2019 at a workshop with influencers," explains Julian Kösters, who is responsible for the YouTube series as project manager at Landeszentralen Personalwerbung. At the time, the question was whether influencers could help to attract young people to the police profession. The result was this format, in collaboration with the production company "Warner Bros. Television".
Kösters, who is now 40, developed the concept and launched a casting among police employees in North Rhine-Westphalia. He was looking for trainee inspectors, seasoned colleagues, lecturers and teachers who wanted to be accompanied in their day-to-day studies. In theory, in training, in practice. A total of 60 employees from the NRW police force spontaneously volunteered to act in front of the camera on a part-time basis.
"We had already had our first experiences with the podcast series 'Kommissar Danger'. But 'Team 110' was supposed to work differently, it wasn't supposed to be about presenting individual operational areas of the NRW police, but about the people," explains Julian Kösters.
People like Vera, who, with her life experience as a senior public prosecutor, is as empathetic as she is resolute when it comes to ringing the doorbell of a quarrelling couple's home and clarifying the situation. Why is the young wife bleeding? Is it really, as she claims, a harmless injury? Or are the neighbors right, who have called the police for help because it's been noisy next door again? Just a role play during Vera's training. But the questions Vera asks soon leave the injured wife with no room for evasion. And at the end of the role-play exercise, they analyze the situation together: How did Vera handle the situation? What more could she have done? How does she herself see her mission?
Everyday life at university. The camera from "Team 110" accompanies the trainee inspectors from their lessons to their deployment in the patrol car to their swearing-in. At judo, at driving practice, at their first traffic check. She visits Justin, who is in the second year of his training as an IT specialist for system integration at the Duisburg State Office for Central Police Services NRW (LZPD NRW), an IT nerd who says he has found his "absolute dream job" in the police. "Justin is very open about it, which is why we can say that. He is autistic and has actually found himself through working for the police, among other things," explains Julian Kösters.
Thomas Söffken, a digitalization expert, also only discovered the police profession for himself at the age of 35. He has been studying administrative informatics as an RIA IT at the NRW police force for three years, allowing him to combine administration with his interest in IT. "This combination is rare outside the police force," says Söffken. In "Team 110", he can be seen visiting the police innovation lab in Duisburg and getting to know "Spot", the robot dog for dicey missions.
A third season for the series is already being considered. Vera, the former senior public prosecutor, will certainly have completed her training by then. She will take on management tasks in the police force and is certain: "I became a police officer because I want to do the right thing in my job."