Grampian Police staff honoured at annual Excellence Awards

A wide variety of staff and projects were heralded at the Grampian Police annual Excellence Awards in September.

Over 90 staff and guests attended the event at Ardoe House Hotel in Aberdeen where the achievements of staff, teams and departments were recognised and honoured.

Speaking about the event, which was fully sponsored by local oil services company, Balmoral, Chief Constable Colin McKerracher said "This event is always a pleasure to be involved in and is one of the highlights of the Force's calendar.

"Now in its fifth year, the Excellence Awards gives our organisation the opportunity to publicly celebrate our successes.

"I take great pride in the achievements on our Force and already several nominations from this year's awards have been put forward for external awards schemes including the Scottish Policing Awards.

"Grampian Police is held in high regard and we are a Force that influences policing across Scotland and beyond."

Over 40 entries were submitted which were short-listed and categorised to produce finalists who each met the judges - the Chief Constable, a member of the Joint Police Board and a representative from the local business community - to talk about their work.

At both the short-listing and final stages, the judges looked for innovation, quality, commitment and impact.

The first winner announced was in the PARTNERSHIP category and was a nine-month pilot project which sees doctors self submitting medical statements by email to officers in line with guidelines from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Since its inception 300 statement requests have been made which has resulted in a saving of approx 600 hours of police officer time which equates to £10,000 in financial terms to Grampian Police alone.

The Highly Commended winner was Peter Reilly who is the Force's Senior Energy Industry Advisor, on secondment from Shell Exploration &Production UK Ltd, for his work in developing a multi-agency awareness programme for the oil and gas sector.

Winner of the PEOPLE category was Sgt. Ian Chalmers for his work with Special Constables in Grampian and co-ordinating the Special Constable's (Scotland) Conference 2010, with Family Protection Unit Researcher, Karen Ivancic awarded the highly commended certificate.

The LEARNING category was a closely fought contest and saw joint winners which were the Force's HR Training Unit which re-developed the probationers' confirmation course and the Force's Foundation Disclosure Training Team for their effective and timely delivery of disclosure training to all Police officers

The Force's Police Staff Recruitment Team was awarded a highly commended certificate in this category for developing a timetable for work experience placements.

The COMMUNITY FOCUS category received the most nominations and was won by the Aberdeen Division Vandalism Proactive Unit for their successful work in tackling vandalism and other offences in Aberdeen city. The Fordoun Underpass Project which saw officers, the council and the local community work together to transform an intimidating underpass into a safer, brighter passageway was awarded the highly commended certificate.

The winner of the PROBLEM SOLVING category was a Operation Zenith which was a pioneering campaign tackling fatal and serious collisions involving motorcyclists. Operation Biro concerning the investigation into a major robbery and attempted robbery in Aberdeen was runner up.

Also awarded at the event was the annual awards for Cadet, Probationer, Driver and Special Constable of the Year. 17 year old Rachel Walker was presented with the Cadet of the Year trophy, PC Elaine Jamieson was the recipient of both the Probationer and Driver of the Year awards whilst Andrew Mackie from Fraserburgh was awarded the Highly commended Special Constable of the Year. The International Police Association Special Constable of the Year was awarded to SPC Chris Smart of Aberdeen's City Centre team who works the same hours as a regular constable.

Chief Constable Colin McKerracher also presented his annual awards to police officers and support staff for their outstanding contribution to the Force. The winning police officer was Sergeant Andy Verreydt in recognition of his substantial contribution, sustained effort and professional commitment to Grampian Police in his role as Partnership Development Officer within Aberdeen City during the last 5 years.

The Police staff winner was Karen Ivancic in recognition of her support to and development of partnership work within the Family Protection Unit which has enhanced Grampian Police service delivery during the last 2 years.

Highly Commended for his contribution and commitment to promote and develop the automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system within Grampian Police which has assisted in bringing serious and organised criminals to justice over the last 3 years, was John Golightly.