‘Bravest bobby’ injured in eye arresting suspect: Doncaster police awards

He was sent to police Doncaster town centre during an England match during the World Cup – and finished the day as the bravest bobby in the borough.
Doncaster Police Awards: the winnersDoncaster Police Awards: the winners
Doncaster Police Awards: the winners

Pc Terry Davidson was on foot patrol, making sure there was no trouble on Silver Street as hundreds of young men gathered on the streets.

But in the midst of crowd of singing men, he spotted a man who was on a long standing wanted list in connection with a violent assault that had taken place in a fast food outlet in the town months earlier.

Doncaster Police Awards: the winnersDoncaster Police Awards: the winners
Doncaster Police Awards: the winners
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He  surged forward, parting the crowd with colleagues stop the suspect. The suspect and others in his group saw Pc Davidson approach and tried to block him so the suspect could escape.

Pc Davidson managed to get hold of him and arrest him – but as he was were doing,  a full beer was thrown straight into the officer’s eye, appearing on CCTV akin to a cricket ball being bowled from a distance of only a few feet.

Despite the attack, he kept hold of the suspect and dragged him from the crowd. Despite a very badly bruised, swollen and closed eye for several days, he remained on duty, not even calling in sick.

The suspect was charged and remanded into prison for his initial assault whilst the person responsible for assaulting Pc Davidson was identified and later arrested.

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This week, his courage was rewarded – as Pc Davidson picked up the bravery award at the Doncaster Police Awards at the Mansion House.

Doncaster district commander Ch Supt Shaun Morley said: “The bravery and devotion to duty that we have heard about during these awards is an inspiration. The actions of officers like these is helping ensure Doncaster remains a safe place, and are typical of officers across the borough.

“‘It’s been 12 months of change but the passion, commitment, drive and determination of the Doncaster team has resulted in this being one of our most successful years to date.”

 

Winners

Team of the Year (shared): Fiona Ginbey and Debra Harkins.

Fiona Ginbey’s and Debra Harkins’ work involves missing from home investigations across Doncaster.

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They have brought in a new district policy that requires safeguarding referrals sending in after every missing episode, improving referral rates, ensuring all partner agencies are aware of missing episodes, improving intervention and outcomes.

They also highlighted children’s care homes sometimes failing to collect children once found by police, or carry out the checks find them. Fiona and Debbie challenged this in multi agency meetings, culminating in the production of a policy document, agreed by police, social care and residential care homes. Since this agreement, the reporting of missing persons living in care homes, particularly those aged over 16, and ‘looked after children’, has fallen by almost 50 per cent. 

They also have good relationships with vulnerable young people who are reported missing on a repeat basis. These young people will often speak with Fiona and Debbie, agreeing to meet them, answering their mobile phones and social media accounts, where they might be reluctant to do so with other people, said their citation.

Team of the Year (shared): Doncaster’s Proactive CID team, Fortify

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Operation Fortify took on the task to stop criminal activities by the PSB gang in Mexborough.

The citation said: “Whilst acknowledging the work is not done, the community of Mexborough is a vastly different landscape to what was encountered at the start of the operation.

“This area was in the grip of the OCG (organised crime group) who were fearless of law enforcement using violence (armed and physical) to hold the community under their power.

“Through utilising all the tools available to district Op Fortify launched a prolonged series of interventions using reactive, proactive, community, partner and specialist services along with a tried and trusted method of firm but fair highly overt uniformed Policing that has taken back the streets for the community for the community.

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“This positive ,robust, fearless team activity has seen individuals imprisoned, removed from the area and a community that can walk around in their own area without fear of the OCG criminality.

“The firearms threat has been severely disrupted which saves lives and the OCG are now firmly aware that this work will continue and they will be disrupted to the point that their activity has no value.”

Partnership Award: PC Vicki Lister and Marcus Isman Egal of EPIC.

A scheme called EPIC was set up by Doncaster Children’s Services Trust in 2016 in collaboration with South Yorkshire Police, working in communities where there is a high rate of youth related Anti-Social Behaviour and Criminality.

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It is aims to develop the resilience and well-being of young people across Doncaster and prevent young people entering the criminal justice system.

Over the last two years EPIC has received over 600 referrals.

Doncaster is now said to be the the fastest improving area in the UK in terms of reducing the number of 10 to 17 year olds entering the criminal justice system. The citation states In the two years since the project launched, EPIC has reduced the number of first time entrants by 65 per cent compared with data from 2015.

It added In Edlington, where EPIC have been deployed for about six months, South Yorkshire Police have recorded a reduction of youth cautions of 51 per cent.

Investigation of the Year: Prison Investigation Team

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The team used body cam footage to show the seriousness of an attack in a prison, when the victim and alleged perpetrator were refusing to co-operate.

The victim was assaulted with a weapon and received  wounds to his head and face. The victim refused to talk to the police, refused to provide his clothing, refused a DNA sample and refused to sign a medical release form. The weapon was discarded at the time by one of the offenders and suspects refused to comment.

Without  medical evidence, it was likely the Crown Prosecution Service would only issue a comparatively minor assault charge, despite the the several lacerations he received.

DC Emma Taylorson checked body-worn camera footage, revealing footage of the extent of the injuries to the victim, and the nurse treating them, and found laws allowing the release of a victim’s medical records without their authorisation under guidelines in the interest of detecting serious crime. DC Michelle Thompson developed this was able to obtain the records .This allowed the extent of the injuries to be available to CPS, and a more serious wounding charge was issued.

Student Officer of the Year: PC Lynsey Kingston

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Former teacher Lynsey Kingston was described as bringing many of the values of being a teacher with her to the police, often assisting colleagues with processing young offenders. She works partner agencies to avoids putting them within the Criminal Justice System unless necessary.

PC Kingston has also been praised for her skills in dealing with vulnerable people and has also been involved in difficult and protracted investigations. Recently, she identified a case of stalking where the victim had contacted the police on a number of occasions. Her investigation resulted in a conviction and the victim being able to lead a normal life once again.

Most recently, whilst off duty. she was involved in the efforts to save the life of a woman who had suffered a cardiac arrest and the family wrote in to describe her and other officers presents as ‘heroes without capes.’

Lifetime Achievement in Policing: Cheryl Fletcher

Cheryl started with South Yorkshire Police on December 11 1978 and has completed 40 years’ service in Doncaster to date.

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Cheryl has processed fixed penalty tickets and fingerprints and worked in CID admin, becoming the CID administrator and then moving onto Operational Support Officer, managing the District CCTV Suite, Enquiry Desk and Property Store and was a key member of the team that bought in a centralised CCTV Suite in 2014.

PCSO of the Year: PCSOs Alex Kirk and Natalie Martin of the Central Neighbourhood Team.

PCSOs Kirk and Martin work as a pair in the town centre of Doncaster and have outstanding knowledge of local offenders, who they associate with and where to find them.

This has resulted in many persistent prolific offenders being detained for probation breaches before they have an opportunity to commit further offences and cause further harm to the general public.

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In addition they have has significantly contributed to the management of the town centre’s complex needs issues.

Special Constable of the Year: SC Becky Rushton

SC Becky Rushton was recently praised for the way she dealt with a vulnerable domestic assault victim, where she was the only officer with the victim whilst other officers remained with the suspect and on the scene. Her handling of the victim was exceptional.

The citation added: “Becky has been singled out by her colleagues for her communication style which she is able to adapt to suit her audience and is becoming more and more confident in dealing with all manner of incidents with every job she attends.”

Detective of the Year: Det Cons Andrew Gray.

Det Cons  Gray.has ‘gone the extra mile’ in a number of ways alongside completing his normal ‘day-to-day’ work.

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Through his role as a drugs expert, which adds significantly to his workload. He does field testing for suspects in custody to help colleagues and provides expert witness evidence which can be vital to a case.

He also regularly works as an ‘acting supervisor’ on the team due to shortages of qualified staff.

Support Staff Citation: Sue Siviter

Sue Siviter, from the business support unit at Doncaster, coordinated the refurbishment work for the new gym at College Road. She changed her working hours, along with giving up her weekends whilst working on the project. She was also a key member of the implementation team for the restructure of Doncaster Response.