Cheshire officer receives response policing award

A response police officer from Cheshire Constabulary has been recognised for their dedication and commitment to response policing during this year’s annual NPCC Response Policing ‘Week of Action’ (24 – 30 June).

Hundreds of nominations for police officers across the country were carefully assessed by 39 police forces to find a single representative from each force. 12 nominations were assessed by a judging panel comprising: Mr Andy Cooke QPM, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary; Mr Andy Rhodes, Director of National Wellbeing Services (Oscar Kilo); Mr Leigh Godfrey, National Police Federation; Chief Superintendent Andy Walker, College of Policing and Chief Constable Rob Carden, national lead for Response Policing.

The panel was immensely impressed by the quality of the nominations and the professionalism and commitment demonstrated by all the nominees. PC David Elliott from Cheshire Constabulary was chosen by the panel as the winner of this year’s award. 

“Congratulations to David, he is a very worthy recipient of this award. David has been a response officer for over 18 years and has been responsible for over 1200 arrests since 2010. His undoubted proactivity is matched by his strong desire to help and protect victims of crime.

“Response policing is a challenging role. The reality is that response officers tend to be the youngest in service and the first to respond to danger.  It is great to have an ambassador and role model for response policing with the experience, positivity and professionalism consistently demonstrated by David.”

Rob Carden, Chief Constable, NPCC lead for Response Policing.

His colleagues have said: “This nomination isn’t just about one act of bravery or conviction secured it’s about an officer who dedicates his working life to protecting his community by doing his best every single shift.”

In the last 12 months, David has made 161 arrests, 68 of which related to domestic abuse, he has submitted 181 intelligence reports and conducted 76 stop searches, all of which achieved through dedication to his communities. David is a role model to all student officers starting their response policing journey.

“On behalf of the Constabulary, I would like to congratulate David Elliot, affectionately known as ‘Billy’ by us here in Crewe, on being honoured with such a prestigious award – he thoroughly deserves this national recognition for all that he does to support and promote Cheshire Police in the best light. What made him stand out to the panel is the length of time he has spent on response, whilst still managing exceptional levels of proactivity with his arrests, stop search and intelligence submissions.

“I personally, and the force as a whole, are extremely proud of our Response Officers who represent the Constabulary with such distinction and making a significant contribution to policing and the communities we serve every day. Unfortunately, there can only be one winner, but I do not think but we could ask for a better officer to be flying the flag for Cheshire than David.”

Claire Jesson, Superintendent, Force Response Lead, Cheshire Constabulary.

Also recognised for their contribution to response policing are runners-up PC Inderpal Sandhu from South Yorkshire Police, and an officer from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).  

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