Cheshire officer wins national Response Officer of the Year Award

Hundreds of nominations for police officers across the country were carefully assessed by 39 police forces to find a single representative from each force.

Twelve nominations were assessed by a judging panel comprising HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke QPM; Andy Rhodes, director of National Wellbeing Services (Oscar Kilo); 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 Response Officer of the Year Award.

NPCC lead for response policing Mr Carden said: “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 1,200 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.

“I would like to thank of our judging panel for their support in raising the profile of this crucial policing role. I would also like to thank and congratulate the nominees from each of the 39 forces that took part, they are all winners and have all played a key role in keeping our communities safe.”

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 past 12 months PC Elliott 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.

Superintendent Claire Jesson, force response lead from Cheshire Constabulary said: “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.

“The standard of the nominations from Cheshire for the 2024 ROOTY Awards has been outstanding, with all seven of our nominees having excelled over the past year and were definitely worthy of winning.

“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.”

Sergeant Matthew Stonier, who nominated PC Elliott, said: First and foremost PC Elliott is an experienced, respected and reliable member of the team whose performance across all areas of response Policing is unrivalled.

“He is the most experienced member of the team and always accepts tasking without complaint and completes them to a high standard every time which is a great example to his less experienced colleagues.

“Throughout the last 12 months, PC Elliott’s performance across all aspects of Response Policing has been truly outstanding. Whether it be his near 200 arrests, LPU leading intel submissions, stop searches or detections secured.

“He is widely known for his proactive policing performance but his ability to respond to risk and vulnerability as well as workload management is often underestimated.”

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

PC Sandhu from South Yorkshire Police was described as having: “An invaluable amount of experience with over 20 years police service, where he consistently passes his knowledge onto the younger officers on his team.

“With the recorded highest number of arrests in the force, 127, this has been down to his level of drive and motivation as well as his high level of passion for being a police officer on a response team.

“His commitment to response policing is second to none and is the first one through the door and last to leave every shift, as well as volunteering to support colleagues not just on his team but the wider district and force.”

The PSNI described its officer as: “An extremely active and productive officer and someone who very clearly acts selflessly placing the needs of others ahead of even his own safety and security.

“His capacity for compassion has been evidenced frequently when attending several life-threatening situations and the care and reassurance he has provided to victims and their families in the most traumatic circumstances.

“In the past year this officer has submitted 129 file submissions and 269 stop searches.”

In addition to celebrating the professionalism and courage of response officers, the Response Policing ‘Week of Action’ is also an opportunity to recognise the challenges they face when policing and consider the future development of a key role that sits at the heart of policing.