ROOKIE police officers made history yesterday, at the North's last passing out parade.

The military-style ceremony is being scrapped in favour of a graduation ceremony, which chief constables in the North believe is more in keeping with modern-day policing.

Yesterday, police recruits serving with seven forces from across Northern England, from Nottinghamshire to Greater Manchester, staged the last uniformed parade at the regional police training centre at Aykley Heads, Durham.

The recruits all attend the regional training centre, which is run by Centrex, formerly known as National Police Training. The event was to mark the completion of the first 15 weeks of their two-year probationary period.

Head of the centre Chief Superintendent Paul Taylor said the new ceremony would be more academic, to mark all aspects of the knowledge recruits had learned.

He said: "The parade today goes back many, many years where they have a military-style parade and march past.

It does not reflect all the other aspects of the training that goes on, that show the students have policing skills."