The Airwave Police Professional Awards These awards are the UK’s first to recognise and reward the commitment of innovators and leaders to improving police performance in their organisations and business areas across the whole of the UK and include police officers and staff in forces and partner organisations.

Who Can be Nominated?
Anyone at any level or section working within the police service, agencies and partners, who is deemed to have initiated, influenced and led a change in performance in their particular field, and meets the criteria.

Who Can Nominate?
Nominations can be made by any organisation or individual in all police forces in the UK policing agencies such as, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), MoD and RAF Police, Home Office, Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), police authorities, and partners such as local authorities and CDRPs.

How do I make a Nomination?

A call for entries is appearing in Police Professional, on the awards website www.policeprofessionalawards.co.uk , in other media as well as in writing to all forces, authorities and agencies. Entry packs are being sent out and are available online or by contacting the awards office. Endorsement will be required from either a peer group or from the organisation/force at command level.

The awards are organised by the publisher of Police Professional, Clarity Publishing, in association with the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), the Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales and Northern Ireland (ACPO), the Association of Chief Police Officers of Scotland (ACPOS), and the Association of Police Authorities (APA).

All stages of the awards process will be monitored by a committee that includes Peter Neyroud, chief executive, NPIA; Dr Marie Dickie, chair, HR Policy Group, APA; Ian Johnston, chair, ACPO Crime Business Area; John Vine, chair, ACPOS Operational Policy Business Area; ACPOS; Sir Chris Fox, former Chief Constable, ACPO President and Paul Lander, Managing Editor of Police Professional.

The panel of judges, composed of senior, expert representatives from the respective category areas, will work within clear guidelines prepared by the working panel to ensure impartial, professional assessment of nominations. The judges include Airwave Police Professional Award Winners from 2007; Peter Holland and Peter Neyroud, NPIA; Professor Gloria Laycock, Jill Dando Institute; Dr Martin Innes, Police Science Institute; John Vine, Tayside Police; Ian Johnston, British Transport Police; Dr Bob Green, Police Standards Unit; Dr Julie Mennell, Northumbria University; David Williams, West Midlands Police; Bob Jones and Dr Marie Dickie, APA; Ken Jones, ACPO; and Julie Spence, Cambridgeshire Constabulary.

Presentation of the awards will take place at the Police Professional Awards Ceremony. Guests will include shortlisted nominees, high ranking police representatives from all UK forces, officials from the Home Office, government ministers and members from NPIA, ACPO, ACPOS, SOCA, SCDEA, APA, superintendents’ associations, police federations, and other national associations and agencies.

For all attendees, this event is black tie or dress uniform. If wearing dress uniform, it is with medals.

The emblem of the Airwave Police Professional Awards is the blue sapphire. The medium-deep cornflower blue is the most valued of all sapphires: it was used at the coronation of Edward the Confessor and Queen Victoria and, according to ancient belief, was the stone on which the whole earth rested.