Celebrating Officers At National Bravery Awards

IT’S important to have the opportunity to recognise and celebrate officers at the upcoming National Police Bravery Awards, Hampshire Police Federation has said.

Among the nominees is Hampshire PC Jordan Janaway, who in November 2020 dragged an injured and violent man off a busy motorway carriage, saving his life. She will attend the prestigious awards ceremony in July.

Hampshire Police Federation Chair Zoë Wakefield said: “This event, and the coverage building up the event, is so important. It’s really important to remind the public that police officers are regularly putting themselves in harm’s way in order to protect them, and to counteract all the negative stories that are in the media.

“The negative stories in the media are about a tiny, tiny minority of officers, but that’s what the public is hearing all the time. So it’s really lovely to be able to talk about all these amazing acts of bravery that have happened up and down the country.”

PC Janaway was only a few months into being a police officer and had no PPE when she saved the man – who was having a mental health crisis and tried to assault her. It later transpired that the man had attacked his father with a hammer immediately prior to the incident.

Zoë praised the officer’s bravery and said: “I’m really looking forward to coming up to the awards with Jordan and her mum. Jordan’s actions were incredibly brave. I think about when I was very new in the job like she was at the time: would I have done what she did? Would I have been that brave? I’m not sure I would have been. So it’s really great that she’s being recognised in this way.”