Special constables, police support volunteers, police cadets and cadet leaders have been recognised at the South West Citizens in Policing Awards.

This year’s event was hosted by Dorset Police at the RNLI College in Poole on Sunday 16 October where nominees gathered. Speakers included Tim Mann MBE and Dorset Police & Crime Commissioner David Sidwick.

Award winners included:

Police Cadet of the Year: Luke Taylor, Devon & Cornwall Police.

Special Constable of the Year: Special Sergeant Jazz Smart, Gloucestershire Constabulary.

Police Support Volunteer of the Year: Rod Almidani, Dorset Police Positive Action Team.

Citizens in Policing Innovation Award: Op Nexum – a Gloucestershire Constabulary six-week initiative, which saw special constables taking to the county’s main road networks to use ANPR to tackle suspected county lines offences.

Highly Commended Certificate: Dorset Police cadets.

Police Cadet Team of the Year: Plymouth Volunteer Police cadets, Devon & Cornwall Police.

Police Support Volunteer Team of the Year: Restorative Justice Facilitators at Wiltshire Police.

Special Constabulary Team of the Year: WAPO Team of Gloucestershire Constabulary.

Chief Constable Scott Chilton said: “I am very proud that Dorset hosted this year’s awards. All our police staff volunteers, special constables or police cadets demonstrate amazing dedication and commitment to their communities, and the role they perform is essential to helping their police force deliver the very best service to the public.

“These awards are about recognising the tremendous work they carry out every day and to thank them for their service. I know I speak for all chief constables when I say that we are very grateful for the time our volunteers give to policing.

“Across our region our Citizens in Policing teams dedicated almost 350,000 hours across a variety of roles over the last year and their positive influence will continue to enable us to improve our service delivery to all our communities.”

Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner David Sidwick said: “The professionalism, dedication and commitment shown by police volunteers across the South West region is incredible.

“As part of the Citizens in Policing programme, the extra added value volunteers bring to policing, through improving community engagement, increasing available resources and skillsets, and allowing officers and staff to focus on frontline duties is essential. The value of their work is not only reflected in the time spent serving the public, which stands at just under a phenomenal 350,000 hours, but it also represents over one million pounds worth of work across the whole of the South West area.

“The hours all police volunteers put in are truly appreciated and so I would like to simply say thank you for all you do; your hard work, dedication and commitment is sincerely valued and is never taken for granted.”

Recruitment for special constables launches on Monday 24 October 2022. You can find out more about this role, as well as other volunteer and cadet roles by visiting: https://recruitment-dcp-dp.org/dorset-police-volunteers/#