2016 Award Winners

“In late 2016, with my manager’s backing, we submitted my work on Vulnerability through the Years to the ACIA for consideration for their strategic/problem solving award. This was a project I had spent about six months working on, in which I had taken an age-based approach to the analysis of our crime (and other) data sets to identify which crime types and other vulnerabilities were having the greatest impact on people at different stages of their life. I incorporated contextual information from websites, academic research and national/international reports to help explain the findings in the data or to add additional understanding and there were also case studies to show the development of offending over time and missed intervention points.

In submitting the work for the awards, we gathered testimonials from our Head of Prevention, one of our Community Safety Partnership Managers and our PCC’s office to demonstrate how this work was providing an evidence base that could be used in multiple ways.

I was delighted when I discovered that I had won the award, because it was gratifying to receive recognition from the judging panel, which was made up of a variety of very experienced professionals. I was unable to attend the awards ceremony, but Keith Jackson and Richard Berry were kind enough to travel down to Devon for a more personal presentation with our Chief Constable, Shaun Sawyer.

My work was the subject of a two-page article in the policing magazine Police Professional and our Corporate Communications department wrote a press release that went out both internally and externally on Facebook and Twitter etc. It was great to be able to share this online with friends and family, as most of them have no idea what I do or what a strategic analyst is!

I was then really honoured to be told I had also been chosen to receive one of IALEIA’s international awards and was invited to attend their conference, which this year was in Minnesota, to be presented with the award.

The conference was a brilliant event. There were a variety of seminars on offer, although intelligence and preventing terrorism were the most common themes. But I also attended sessions on Excel techniques, an academic presentation on identifying potential contact sex offenders online, real time social media and structured analytical techniques. By attending certain seminars I picked up two analytical certificates to add to my CV. It was also great to meet Ruth O’Malley, winner of the Operational analysis award, to share the experience together and to make a really valuable contact in the UK analytical world.

They were quite long days with the first seminar starting at 8am, but they were spaced throughout the day with long enough breaks in between to talk to other attendees and find out more about how policing differs in the US to the UK. Everyone was incredibly friendly and at 5:30pm each evening we moved from the seminars to a social event sponsored by one of the event’s sponsors. One evening we had the whole Hard Rock Café to ourselves, and another night the Sky Sports Bar, with food and drinks included.

On the final night we had the awards banquet: the IALEIA and their sister organisation LEIU, each presented their awards, then there was a buffet dinner, followed by entertainment provided by a professional comedian, who also happened to be an ex-cop….

Overall, as a result of winning these awards, my analytical work has gained a lot more traction within my own force, as well as national publicity; I have met some great people, and I have learned lots about analysis, intelligence and law enforcement outside of my own force area. I would definitely recommend that other analysts who feel they have been innovative or particularly successful in their work should put themselves forward to their manager for entry into next year’s awards. ”

“I had been assigned to Op CODA for two years when my DCI nominated me for the award. It was the sort of case that took over my life: evenings and weekends were consumed working on it. It was all I lived, breathed and slept. I was honoured that my DCI felt the work was good enough to be nominated for the ACIA award. When I received the call from my DCI to say that I had won the tactical award, I couldn’t believe it. I felt so humbled to have been recognised by my profession with the National Award. 

I have working in tactical analysis for 12 years on some very serious cases, but none were as challenging or rewarding as Operation CODA so to receive the award for that was just an amazing feeling. Attending the awards ceremony was fantastic. I spoke to some really interesting people and it was a good opportunity to learn about other techniques people were employing to drive forward investigations.

As a result of the National Award, I was then entered into the IALEIA award. I honestly thought that I’d have no chance at winning that. I thought that what I had done, must be being replicated elsewhere across the world. You can imagine my surprise when I got an email to say that I had won the IALEIA award! Thanks to the support from ACIA and my Managers at GMP, I was able to get the funding to attend the IALEIA conference in Minnesota, USA. This was a massive opportunity for me. I was over the moon to be able to attend.

Attending the actual conference was a good experience: to learn what is going on across law enforcement internationally; and to look at ways analysts can help combat or solve crimes. When it came to the awards ceremony, the conference organisers even allowed for my husband to accompany me. This meant so much to me, as the case had affected his life too. 

I know I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I did without his unwavering support, so to be allowed to bring him with me was just perfect. Overall the whole experience has been fantastic. I didn’t enter this career looking for praise or recognition, but when an investigation takes over your like in the way that this one did; it is such a wonderful reward for hard work. I would recommend anyone entering the ACIA awards.”