Policing with the Community endorsed

This week I have been involved in judging, along with the Policing Board Chairman and senior colleagues including a representative from the Police Federation, applications for the Police Officer of the Year Award 2012.  

There are eight categories in all, two of these where members of the public can nominate an individual officer or a Neighbourhood Policing Team for a Policing with the Community Award.   

It is really encouraging to see the number of officers who were nominated by members of the public or by partner organisations, and to read about the breadth and depth of work that is going on across the districts and departments.  This work was also publicly endorsed at the start of the week by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate's report into Policing with the Community.  So selecting the winners was an extremely difficult decision to make.  

The past few days have shown the wide range of challenges faced by police officers, often involving exposure to grave personal risk. Despite these challenges, police officers and staff are pushing the boundaries every single day to work closely with communities to deliver personal professional and protective policing.  Today police officers, supported by police staff, will be out and about as usual all over Belfast and across Northern Ireland, delivering a policing service in partnership with the community.  

The very many initiatives highlighted in the applications also show how communities have embraced policing, working together to make very significant differences in tackling crime and addressing ‘quality of life' issues which can have a great impact on local areas.    

We need to build on the success of these initiatives in partnership with Executive Departments and local agencies, to ensure that those areas of greatest need receive the support they require to make a real long term difference.  

I want to thank those members of the public and representatives from such a variety of partner agencies who took the time to complete and submit applications.   We welcome feedback, both positive and negative, on how we provide a policing service to everyone.   

As a member of the Judging Panel, it was a pleasure to read so many encouraging comments.  I look forward to the announcement in the next few weeks of who will be the 2012 Police Officer and Neighbourhood Policing Team of the Year.