Two initiatives from Welsh Police Forces nominated for World-Class Policing Awards

THE first World Class Policing Awards ceremony was held in Central London on the 14th November 2019. The awards aim to celebrate and acknowledge the best in all aspects of 21st Century policing and will be held annually. The two initiatives nominated for an award were the ‘All Wales Recruitment Process’ and ‘Dyfed-Powys Police Serious and Organised Crime Team.’

All Wales Recruitment Process

The introduction of one bilingual e-recruitment platform for all Welsh Police forces was an innovative approach that has vastly improved the service potential candidates’ experience. The work began with Police Officer Recruitment which has been nominated for this award. The design gives a consistent, streamline and collaborative approach that enables each of the forces in Wales to work together for the benefit of anyone applying to any police service in Wales.

This approach was mapped end to end and not only reduced the application time, but it also streamlined the process, and reduced bureaucracy. This is a true collaboration, with teams dialing into a meeting on a weekly basis to update on progress and frequently held continuous improvement events to improve, develop and share best practice.  In the four forces, there is a shared commitment to improve the process for all. Since the nomination the special constabulary flow, police community support officers flow and police staff flow have been launched and work is now ongoing on a cadets flow.

It is never easy to make a recruitment process sound exciting but what has been achieved is innovative where the applicant can do all their process online and their results are instant. This has reduced the application time from application to assessment centre ready from 8 weeks to at the quickest 56 minutes, the average time is 9 days for a candidate. We have had over 7000 applications so far on the system.

Project lead Tracy Hawthorne said:

“I am incredibly proud of what has been achieved in Wales. With the help and support of a small but dynamic team, we made the delivery deadline on the All Wales e-recruitment solution. It is an innovative solution, integrates with other platforms,  bilingual and user-friendly for the candidates and recruiters alike. It is a true collaboration between the welsh police forces and I would like to thank all the Chief Constables in Wales for supporting and recognising our achievements.”

Dyfed-Powys Police Serious and Organised Crime Team (SOCT)

The SOCT team were nominated for the award following the success of ‘Operation Ulysses’ which foiled multi-million-pound conspiracies by sophisticated organised crime groups who were supplying and distributing drugs on the streets of Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.

‘Operation Ulysses’ commenced because of an increase in the number of heroin-related deaths predominately in the Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion areas of Wales.  A total of 44 defendants were sentenced to over 249 years in prison between them and significantly there was a decline in the number of heroin-related deaths in Llanelli since the group’s operation was dismantled.  This was a prolonged operation and is the most complex investigation undertaken by the team due to the number of organised crime groups involved throughout Wales and Liverpool. It was demanding, and the team was deployed away from their families for long periods.

The sophisticated group were dealing on an industrial scale. They operated covertly and executed their criminal enterprise with precision. They were very careful with respect to where they stored drugs and used isolated, rural locations that were difficult to access. The Serious and Organised Crime Team utilised a wide range of equally sophisticated tactics available to them to infiltrate the group’s operation. This included the force’s Digital and Cyber Crime Unit examination of mobile phones, working through telephone data and analysing nearly 2 million rows of data.

As well as enforcement activity local policing teams worked with partners including local authorities, health and drug agencies to provide support to the communities and individuals.

Detective Inspector Gareth Grant, SOCT said:

”It means a lot to be nominated for the World Class Policing Awards. It is important that the hard work and dedication of the SOCT over the last few years is recognised. The operation was complex and comprehensive and achieved outstanding results and I would like to thank all who worked together to achieve these results.”

Dyfed-Powys Police Chief Constable Mark Collins said:

“I’m extremely proud that we have two nominations elected as this year’s finalists. Our Serious Organised Crime Team has been nominated for Operation Ulysses which was a response to a number of drug-related deaths and multimillion-pound conspiracies to supply class A drugs. What is often a hidden world, is up there being recognised on stage amongst a number of other world-class colleagues. The All Wales Recruitment Process is an innovative approach to recruitment and demonstrates what can be achieved through collaboration between the welsh forces.  I would like to thank both teams for their commitment and hard work which have led to outstanding results.”

Further information can be found on the website http://www.worldclasspolicing.com/

Photo L to R for the All Wales Recruitment Process: Dyfed-Powys Police Chief Constable Mark Collins; All Wales Recruitment Project Lead Tracy Hawthorne; Dyfed-Powys Police Senior Manager Recruitment, Selection, and Apprenticeships Karyn Howells; All Wales Support Officer Nicola Eccles; South Wales Police Director Of People and Organisational Development Mark Stevenson.