POLICE officers and staff from across the UK were recognised for their \u201ccourage, inspiration, excellence and extraordinary skill\u201d at the annual British Association for Women in Policing Awards Ceremony.<\/p>\n
Fourteen officers and staff \u2013 13 women and one man \u2013 won awards at the event in Stratford upon Avon, including Police Officer of the Year, Bravery Award, Lifetime Achievement, Leadership and Excellence in Performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seven further officers and staff were highly commended.<\/p>\n
The event \u2013 which was held on 11 November \u2013 also included a two minute silence to remember those who have given their lives serving the country.<\/p>\n
Cressida Dick, President of the British Association for Women in Policing and an assistant commissioner at the Met, said the award winners displayed \u201ccourage, inspiration, excellence, extraordinary skill, great care for victims, diligence, sacrifice and sheer hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cTo all the award winners, many congratulations, we are very proud of you. Am sure every single one of you will say \u2013 \u201cI was just doing my job, the job\u201d. As we sit here today there are people doing extraordinary things, every day heroism, acts of amazing humanity and compassion and incredible skill, keeping our public safe and bringing offenders to justice and looking after victims.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also had a special word of thanks for the families of award winning police officers. Cressida added: \u201cWe do thank you but we also thank those who love you. Because you would not be here and do what you do if it was not for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winning the Bravery Award \u2013 dedicated to the PC Nicola Hughes Memorial Fund \u2013 was PC Colette Stoner, of Surrey Police, who confronted a knife-wielding man. She was joined at the event by her chief constable Lynne Owens.<\/p>\n
Winning the Community Award was Insp Hazel Brady, from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, while Excellence in Performance went to DC Clare Cresswell, of Warwickshire Police.<\/p>\n
There was loud applause for all winners of the BAWP Awards \u2013 presented by BAWP Vice President Fay Tennet \u2013 including in the Leadership category, where Insp Jeanette Richards, of West Midlands Police, picked up the prize.<\/p>\n
There were two winners in the Lifetime Achievement Awards section \u2013 they were Yvonne Rhoden, formerly of the Met, and Jackie Roberts, formerly from Dyfed-Powys Police.<\/p>\n
In the Mentoring category, Sgt Kelly Rooke, of Cheshire Police, was the winner, while overall Police Officer of the Year was given to PC Toni Love, of South Yorkshire Police. (pictured with AC Dick)<\/p>\n
PC Love said she was \u201cextremely proud and amazed to receive the award.\u201d She added: \u201cI enjoy being out and about, working with Specials, being out on the streets talking to people and helping them. I can\u2019t believe it. I\u2019m so proud \u2013 it\u2019s brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were Special Recognition\u00a0awards for Debi Potter, of Dorset Police and Sgt Gareth Wrigley of Cheshire Police. Sgt Wrigley had helped scores more female officers in his force understand what it is like to carry a police gun and then apply for firearms positions.<\/p>\n
The Police Staff Achievement award went to Community Support Officer Guinnie Mooneesawmy, of the Met. Guinnie is one of the country\u2019s longest serving CSOs, having been in the role more than 11 years.<\/p>\n
Winners of the Contribution to International Policing \u2013 president by Colette Paul, chief constable of Bedfordshire Police \u2013 were Insp Christine Edwards and Ch\u00a0 Insp Avrina Montgomery, of the Ministry of Defence Police and Sue Frank, from Cheshire Police.<\/p>\n
The event was attended by Bryn and Nat Hughes, parents of fallen officer PC Nicola Hughes, and hundreds of pounds was raised for the PC Nicola Hughes Memorial Fund.<\/p>\n
Sara Thornton, chief constable and Thames Valley Police, and Ch Supt Irene Curtis, President of the Police Superintendents\u2019\u2019 Association of England and Wales, also gave speeches.<\/p>\n
Ch Supt Curtis said the awards highlighted \u201camazing people who do amazing work day in, day out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POLICE officers and staff from across the UK were recognised for their \u201ccourage, inspiration, excellence and extraordinary skill\u201d at the annual British Association for Women in Policing Awards Ceremony. Fourteen\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1565,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562\/revisions\/1565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}