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Pearls in Policing'. That was the name of the global meeting that took place in 2007 from 10 to 13 June. As an international city of peace and justice, The Hague welcomed some 35 police chiefs from all over the world. In preparation, the Police Academy thought of a monument highlighting the contribution of the police to world peace.

It is not a traditional monument of a bronze statue on a pedestal. The client wanted the words peace - justice - police to be incorporated in the work of art. No wonder that the consultant Stroom Den Haag chose the Leiden artist and graphic designer Jan Kleingeld for this assignment. Text and typography are not only part of his practice as a designer, but in his free work as an artist text also plays an essential role. Kleingeld usually aligns location, material, text and meaning in a subtle and poetic way. For example, he revived an old tradition by marking the transition from the old to the new building of the municipal archive in Leiden with 'ANNO 1995'. In the new brick wall, that is.

For the police memorial, a commission that lay at the intersection of his two fields of work, Kleingeld came up with an attractively stylized, elongated bench in gold, white and blue with the texts desired by the client. At night, the seating element is illuminated from within, so that the message remains clearly visible, even in the dark. Although the Police Academy took the lead, the Haaglanden Police adopted the monument and realised it on the pavement near the headquarters. After all, that is the road to the Peace Palace, situated 500 metres away. On the road to peace, on the road to justice, on the road to police'.