The international police member accommodation network represents one of the most geographically dispersed resources in global law enforcement professional development. Member houses — properties ranging from converted farmhouses and villas to purpose-built conference and accommodation facilities — are operated by national policing sections in countries across Europe, the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Americas.
Access is straightforward for members of affiliated national sections: accommodation rates at member properties are substantially below commercial hospitality rates, with the explicit purpose of making international professional exchange accessible to working officers rather than reserved for senior leadership attending formal conferences.
The European Core
The network's density is highest in Europe, where the accommodation model originated and where it has operated continuously since the 1960s. Germany hosts the flagship facility — the International Seminar Center at Castle Gimborn in the Oberbergischer Kreis — alongside additional regional properties. The German network was among the first to develop and has served as a model for national sections establishing their own properties.
The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Romania, Greece, Hungary, and Cyprus all operate member accommodation facilities. The European properties range from urban apartment facilities serving members passing through major cities to rural retreat properties designed for longer stays, seminars, and group professional development programs.
The United Kingdom operates member accommodation serving as both a base for officers visiting Britain and a gathering point for international exchanges hosted on UK soil. British facilities have hosted officers from dozens of countries over decades of operation.
Africa and the Asia-Pacific
The presence of member accommodation in sub-Saharan Africa reflects the depth of international policing association membership on the continent. Botswana and South Africa both operate member facilities — a significant organizational achievement given the resource constraints facing many African policing associations and a concrete demonstration of the association network's commitment to genuine global rather than primarily European reach.
Australia's facilities serve the Pacific region and have been a significant gathering point for law enforcement officers from across the Asia-Pacific. The Australia properties represent the association network's furthest geographic reach from its European origins, and their establishment required sustained organizational effort from the Australian national section.
The Americas
Brazil's member accommodation represents the network's anchor in South America, serving a national section that covers one of the world's largest law enforcement workforces. The Brazil facility has facilitated professional exchange between South American officers and their European and North American counterparts that would otherwise depend entirely on expensive commercial travel arrangements.
How Access Works
Member access to the accommodation network operates through national section membership. An officer who is a member of their national policing association can access properties in any country where a member facility operates, at member rates, through booking systems administered by the relevant national section.
The practical effect is that a British officer traveling professionally or on leave to Germany, Spain, or Australia can access quality accommodation at significantly reduced rates while staying in a facility shared with law enforcement professionals from across the network. The informal professional exchange that occurs in these shared spaces — conversations over meals, introductions between officers from different forces, the relationship-building that happens naturally in residential settings — supplements whatever formal professional development programming may accompany the stay.
For many officers, their first international professional contacts are made in accommodation network facilities rather than at formal conferences. The longitudinal relationships built through repeated use of the network over a career — returning to the same facilities, meeting the same contacts from other forces — represent a form of international professional capital that is difficult to replicate through formal channels alone.
For the history of the accommodation network and how it developed from a 1959 camping site near Wuppertal into a global facility network: International Police Exchange Centers: The IPA Houses Model. For international policing organizations and national section contacts: International Law Enforcement Organizations.