Page 6 - BedFed Dec2018 Flipbook

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Detectives honoured
The country has the best police service in the world.
Those were the words of Martin Plummer, the Police Federation’s National Detectives’ Forum (PFNDF) chair, when celebrating all that is good in investigative policing at the forum’s annual awards ceremony.
Martin said: “The Police Federation’s National Detectives’ Forum is proud to award fellow officers for their quite astonishing breadth of ground-breaking and dedicated work. I am privileged and humbled to have been on the judging panel and I can say that it has been a near impossible task to narrow the entries down to the winners.
“The high standard of entries have shown what we know to be true – that we have the
best police service in the world.”
A team of Hertfordshire Constabulary
detectives won the Detective Investigation of the Year award for uncovering a global paedophile ring.
A Metropolitan DC won Trainee Detective of the Year for his tenacity and victim- focussed approach. His achievements included identifying the under-reporting of
hate crimes against disabled people. He also obtained the first domestic violence protection order in the capital and has frequently gone beyond his role to build relationships and trust within communities.
Sussex DI Clare Shiel came first in the Services to Detectives category for being an outstanding role model to detectives of all ranks.
The Smarter Detective of the Year was awarded to DC Darren White from Devon and Cornwall Police, who investigated the abuse of children abroad by a UK national.
The overall Regional Recognition Award winner was DC Chris Williams from Avon and Somerset, who won the award for her passion and dedication to safeguard children
Well organised and relev
Graeme Twyford says there was a lot to take away from his first Police Federation National Detectives’ Forum (PFNDF) seminar and annual awards.
Graeme, a Bedfordshire Police Federation workplace representative and detective sergeant with the Internet Child Abuse Protection Team at Force Headquarters, says it was good to hear about the experiences of detectives and senior officers across the service.
“This was the first PFNDF seminar that I have attended,” he said. “I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I found the event to be extremely well organised and relevant.
“It was good to hear first-hand from Surrey’s Chief Constable Nick Ephgrave on the enterprise that is taking place to encourage recruitment and retention of detective constables.
“The NCA suspect interview presentation raised some practical guidance.
“The highlights were, on day one, the fraud presentation, Chief Constable Ephgrave and cyber-crime. On day two, the highlight was the NCA suspect interview.”
Graeme said there was room for other presentations to help detectives develop.
“I would like to see a session dedicated to the challenges of recruitment and retention of detectives at detective constable and detective sergeant,” he said.
“The session would include the current picture, developments on the horizon (direct entry/HP scheme) and feature a Q & A period to allow the venting, sharing of good practice and bad practice.”
Graeme said he was able to pass on plenty of lessons and examples of best practice to his team.
“Upon my return, I briefed my team on the national picture which I gained from discussions during the event,” he added. “This was underpinned by the address by Mr
‘We should nominate our CID colleagues’
Bill Rumford says Bedfordshire detectives should be nominated for next year’s Police Federation National Detectives’ Forum awards.
Bedfordshire Police Federation rep Bill says our detectives are doing fantastic work and was surprised that none were included in the nominations for this year’s awards.
Bill, who is in his first year as a rep, says he wants to acknowledge the ‘sterling work’ being carried out by Bedfordshire CID.
Bill, who attended the awards ceremony in Manchester, said: “The awards were very interesting, however, when I see some of the incidents we investigate within Bedfordshire on a daily basis I was a little surprised we did not have any of our own detectives with hands on the awards.
“This I hope to rectify in the coming years and will be asking for nominations. It was very apparent we in Bedfordshire are unique in what we investigate and the degree of offences compared to our colleagues in forces up and down the country.
“It is only right we acknowledge the officers and teams for the sterling work they do on a day-to-day basis that we just take as normal business.”
Bill said he learned a lot from the seminar after hearing about work being carried out across a range of areas.
“I was more than happy to attend the PFNDF seminar and awards as I work within CID,” he said. “I had no expectations nor did I ask what it entailed in order to keep an open mind.
“The event was very well laid out and had a friendly atmosphere with representatives from the sponsors also on hand. There were many talks including
£1 billion corruption investigation, disability in policing, what detectives get in Surrey to name a few.
“But the ones that stick in my mind above them all were the cyber-crime input by Cal Leeming, a former computer hacker, and the assisted suicide talk by Brian McNeill QPM. One of the inputs was by Gary Shaw MBE on investigative interviewing. “As part of this, Gary promoted the ability to obtain a degree in applied investigation which, if you are PIP 2 qualified, you would enter the degree in its final year,” said
“Completing the year would offer a BA (Hons) in investigation. I have all the details should anyone wish to know more.”
Cal Leeming discusses cyber-crime.