Jane’s recognises Community Support Officers with new prestigious national policing award

Community Support Officers to be recognised with new prestigious national award

Community Support Officers (CSOs) will, for the first time, be recognised with a national award by the premier evening on the policing calendar – Jane’s Police Review Gala Awards 2007.

The Community Support Officer of the Year Award is a brand new category at this year’s awards, acknowledging the high quality intelligence and strong community links that CSOs bring to the benefit of forces.

According to Home Office figures, there were 8,517* CSOs in England and Wales (*30 September 2006), although plans are to strengthen that figure to 16,000 by the end of 2007 with increased funding and recruitment.

Catriona Marchant, editor of Jane’s Police Review, says the new award recognises CSOs evolving contribution to neighbourhood policing since their introduction in 2003.

“The numbers are increasing all the time, so recognising the contribution of CSOs who are not attached to high-profile units or squads and who rarely make the headlines, but make a significant difference in their communities, is vital,” says Marchant.

Home Office figures show that the Metropolitan Police fields the greatest number of CSOs with 2,681 in total. In comparison, Suffolk possesses one of the lowest strength CSO forces with only 46 officers.

Now in its 16th year, the Jane’s Police Review Gala Awards has four other award categories that cover the spectrum of a policing career including Community Police Officer of the Year Award, Student Officer of the Year Award, Diversity in Action Award and the Lifetime Achievement in Policing Award.

The winner of the Community Support Officer of the Year Award will receive £1,000 from the National Neighbourhood Policing Programme to travel to a force or forces in England and Wales to share and learn about best practice on a particular issue of relevance to them. (ENDS)

Editor's Notes:

For more information about the forthcoming awards or the new Community Support Officer of the Year category please contact Mandy Castle, PR Manager, on Tel: +44 (0) 20 8700 3745 or email amanda.castle@janes.com

About the Awards:

Award winners will be judged on the basis of personal skills, initiatives to combat local crime and officers’ working relationships with their local communities; the nominees come from forces across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Jane’s Police Review Gala Awards are run by Jane’s Police Review (the UK’s biggest-selling policing magazine) and are judged by an authoritative panel of leading policing figures.

The closing date for all nominations is 18 June 2007 and the winners of all five award categories will be announced as part of a glitzy ceremony 22 November 2007 at The Brewery, London.

The Home Secretary has been invited to present the Awards again this year.

Only one officer per force may be nominated for each award apart from the Diversity in Action Award which is a team award. Judging will take place in July.

Community Support Officer Numbers for England and Wales (30 September 2006)**

Highest number of CSOs	2,681 (Metropolitan Police)
2nd highest number of CSOs	505 (West Yorkshire)
3rd highest number of CSOs	348 (West Midlands)
Lowest number of CSOs	8 (City of London)
2nd lowest number of CSOs	27 (Cumbria)
3rd lowest number of CSOs	30 (Dyfed-Powys)

Humberside saw the greatest year-on-year increase in CSO numbers, increasing by 468.2% in twelve months (Sept 05 – Sept 06).

**Source: Home Office Science and Research & Statistics www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb0407.pdf

Award Categories

The Community Support Officer Award has been added as a new category in 2007. They will be judged on their personal skills and how they add value to policing their communities, through listening to, recording and solving community issues. They must demonstrate excellent working relationships within their communities and show how the force is benefiting from high quality community intelligence that they bring.

The Community Police Officer of the Year Award is the longest running and most prominent of the four award categories at this annual event. The category winner will receive a £3,000 travel bursary to enable the officer to study community policing in another country.

The Student Officer of the Year Award was introduced in 2002 to recognise outstanding personal skills shown by probationers throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The award is judged on the probationer's personal skills in interacting with the public and their practical policing skills, including crime investigation skills, making an arrest and dealing with incidents.

All nominees receive an engraved medal and certificate at the award ceremony. The winner will receive a £1,000 bursary to study policing in another country.

The Diversity in Action Award was launched in 2004 and is a team award for police officers and police staff. The award recognises excellent practice by forces in diversity issues, which have led to the successful policing of communities. The award can reflect the way a particular incident was handled or a successful conclusion made to an operation. The team can be made up of both police officers and police staff with an operational theme. The winning team will be presented with a bursary for £5,000 with which they will be able to undertake learning or development activities such as commencing a research project, visiting another country to aid learning about a specific community, or to provide base funding for a new community-based project.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was first presented in 2003. The nominating forces must select officers who, throughout their career, have made an outstanding contribution to their respective forces, communities and the service. From policing anti-social behaviour to tackling the most serious of crimes, the officers listed here, who have had long and distinguished careers in the service, are role models for the numerous new recruits who join the service. Judges will look for candidates who have been dedicated to the job and to a life serving the public, often at the sharp end of policing. They are the epitome of what the public wants to see in a police officer.

And the winner is…?

If you would like to receive information on the nominees and the winners prior to the Award announcements in November, or if you would like more information please contact us on the details provided.

Free media attendance at the event is available on condition that this is agreed beforehand. The event is a full black-tie evening gala dinner with many opportunities for photography, video and (later in the evening) interviews. For attending journalists, the dress code is smart dress.

(ENDS)