Celebrating our wonderful police staff on International Women's Day

If you have been following us this week you will undoubtedly be aware that we are focusing on #CelebratingPoliceStaff. How wonderful, then, that this week of awareness, celebration, and recognition, also coincides with one of the most important dates on the calendar – International Women’s Day!

In the spirit of the occasion, we’re going to profile a few members of staff who graciously shared their stories, talked about their roles, and explained how their careers have progressed.

These are just samples of longer pieces of work. At the end of the Police Staff Week of Celebration and Recognition, we will be publishing a new microsite that will feature all of the case studies that we received.

For now, please enjoy reading these snapshot stories of some truly inspirational women!

Emma Champion is Senior Criminal Records Administrator at ACRO Criminal Records Office . She works with a team who have the responsibility in ensuring that that Police National Computer is updated with foreign convictions for both UK and foreign nationals, to ensure that appropriate safeguards and assessment can be put in place to manage any individual who may pose a serious and immediate threat in the UK.

Ella White is a Senior Research Officer within the College of Policing 's research community, specifically focused on violence against women and girls. She is currently spending her time working on the evaluation of video response to domestic abuse. Some of the tasks she has been working on recently include:

• Creating tailored evaluation plans for each force
• Reviewing a Data Protection Impact Assessment and information sharing agreements with forces
• Designing survey questions and interview topic guides

Kate Viles is a Communication and Engagement Manager at Derbyshire Constabulary . She manages three teams within the communications department, and loves the challenges that the role throws at her. She started in the communications department originally on a secondment, and then progressed and to four other roles. This year will mark 25 years since she joined the force, which we think you will agree, is an absolutely incredible achievement.

As Business Planning and Risk Officer at NPCC, Lorna Humphrey supports the delivery, management and development of the risk framework across the organisation – directing various business functions (teams, projects, programmes and organisations) in the identification, reporting and escalation of risk, enabling consistent methodologies with a focus on control and mitigation.

Her work provides a comprehensive overview of prioritised risks to be considered by senior leadership, at Chief Constables’ Council, creating the opportunity for well informed, proportionate and coordinated responses.

Dominika Klos currently works at Cheshire Police (Cheshire Constabulary) as a detention officer. Prior to this, she was a cleaner in the suite. It was her experiences here that made her strive to become a detention officer. Dominika is of Polish origin but can speak several different languages.

Dominika regularly assists with communicating with foreign nationals within the suite and builds rapport to reassure the detainees. Dominika has good communication skills with all detainees, quickly identifies vulnerabilities and caters for all needs. She works tirelessly to ensure the safety and progression of detainees is paramount.

Lillie Abbott is a Senior Diversity and Inclusion Advisor at West Midlands Police , and also chairs a local disability network, ensuring that the force has a critical friend through the staff network to advise and support them on issues that are arising from members. She also leads on disability for the force on a whole. She has been successful in applying for innovation funding for British Sign Language interpreters for the 101 call system, which has been in use for three years.

Safreen Din, a manager in Nottinghamshire Police 's Financial Investigation Unit, has been working as a Financial Investigator for over 21 years.

She oversees a team of police staff committed to investigating financial crimes such as money laundering and organised crime.

Under her leadership, the team works to recover money that has been illegally acquired from criminals including drug deals and fraudsters ensuring that justice is served, and criminals are held accountable for their actions.

Chelsey Garner is a Head of Legal Services. She manages the overall delivery of legal services across two forces ( Devon and Cornwall Police and Dorset Police ) and three counties. This includes the following key responsibilities:

• Setting the strategic direction for a team of 28 individuals to maintain the provision of a comprehensive legal service for both forces.
• Providing strategic and technical advice across a wide range of disciplines.
• Representing the Chief Constable at meetings and court hearings.
• Handling of sensitive and high-profile cases across both forces.
• Managing the performance of the senior management team in line with force priorities, objectives, and performance indicators.

Finally, Allison Dace is Continuing Airworthiness Management Support Officer at the National Police Air Service (NPAS). In a nutshell, her role is to make sure NPAS provide the highest levels of aircraft availability to support policing operations across England and Wales.

She is responsible for planning the long-term maintenance schedules for the whole fleet, of 15 police helicopters and four police aeroplanes. She also work closely with the engineering team at AHUK to ensure that all Aircraft on Ground (AOGs) are serviced, safe and returned to flight operations as quickly as possible so that they deliver the very best service they can to policing.