Devon & Cornwall Police honour 20 and 30 years of service

Twenty years is long enough to watch a beat change beyond recognition, to see colleagues come and go, and to answer thousands of the calls most people spend their lives hoping they never have to make. For a group of officers and police staff at Devon & Cornwall Police, that stretch, and in some cases a decade more, has just been marked with a formal thank you.

What the awards recognise

The force presented its Long Service and Good Conduct Awards last week, recognising a group of officers and police staff for 20 and 30 years of service with Devon & Cornwall Police.

The awards are given for exactly what the name suggests: two or three decades on the job, and a record of good conduct across all of it. Behind each one, the force says, sits a career built on long shifts, difficult decisions, personal sacrifice, teamwork and resilience.

The range of roles behind the recipients

The recipients have not spent those years in one corner of the organisation. Between them they have worked across neighbourhood policing, investigations, armed response, safeguarding, driver training and public protection.

In those roles, the force says, they have supported victims, brought offenders to justice, protected vulnerable people and helped shape the communities they serve across Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Thanks to the families too

Devon & Cornwall Police also used the occasion to thank the people around its staff: the families, friends and loved ones who have supported them through their careers.

A 20 or 30 year policing career is rarely a solo effort, and the force was clear that the recognition extended beyond the officers and staff collecting awards to everyone who kept them going through the long shifts and the difficult decisions that came with them.