FRENCH police officers are to cross the Channel to work with their British counterparts in the second leg of an exchange focusing on traffic-related issues, police have said.
The three officers from the Gendarmerie Nationale will be on patrol alongside officers from Kent Police, where they will look at a range of concerns such as speeding and the disruption caused by foreign lorries.
It follows a visit by three officers from Kent Police to the Pas de Calais region of northern France in August, in response to the high number of speeding British motorists in the area.
During the French leg of the visit, officers from Kent Police observed as their counterparts checked motorists' driving documents and examined the condition of their vehicles, which will be mirrored here.
The officers will also look at Operation Stack, the measure implemented whenever problems with Channel crossings lead to a backlog of traffic at the county's ports.
Freight traffic is held on the M20 causing huge volumes of traffic to be diverted on to surrounding roads and villages, and has been exacerbated by the recent fire in the Channel Tunnel.
Kent Police said the French officers will also be taken to a lay-by on the A20 to explore the local problems generated by lorries parking there.
A spokesman for Kent Police said the aim of the exchange was to find out more about how each other's forces deal with shared traffic issues on either side of the Channel.
The initiative also follows the launch in July of the Travelling Abroad section of the Kent Police website, which includes details about French speeding restrictions, road rules and signs, as well as more general advice such as how to report a crime in the country.
Kent Police said the visit coincides with the start of school holidays in France, when traffic coming to the UK is expected to be high.
Roads Policing Chief Inspector Roscoe Walford said: "We are looking forward to welcoming our French counterparts and completing the exchange process.
"Our officers gained a great deal from working with the Gendarmerie Nationale in August and I am sure the French officers will also benefit from their experience in Kent."
