Police Officer of the Year Award Process

The Rotary Club of Blacktown City has successfully run its Police Officer of the Year Award since 1999, the inaugural Award being for service in 1998.  Refer separate article re background information and Sponsorship request.

 The process we followed to initiate the Award was to:

• approach the Superintendent of Police at the Blacktown Local Area Command to gain his approval to run the Award and he was very supportive
• meet with the Mayor of the City, promote the Award and gain support (we have a great relationship with our local Mayor and Council and this was no problem)
• seek a sponsor from the local community, we offered (proposal on separate page) the project to Westpoint Blacktown, a large local Shopping Centre that was keen to become involved with Rotary and such a worthwhile community service project
• the next step was to promote the Award to the local newspaper and we met with the Editor, Features' Manager and Advertising Manager, outlined the basis of the Award and what we wanted from them e.g. weekly publicity advising the launch of the Award, an article about the launch and to run an article and photo about a different Officer nominated each week during the nomination period, in the week prior to the Presentation Evening a 2 page feature on the Award and an article after the Presentation Evening announcing the Award recipient (we don't refer to the Officer as the winner; we consider all Officers nominated are winners)
• we established a Judging Panel comprising the current Rotary President, the Community Affairs Manager from our sponsor, the Community Relations Manager from the Blacktown City Council, a female Manager from the local paper
• when nominations close copies of the nominations are given to members of the Judging Panel to review over a weekend; we meet at the Police Station the next week to make the decision
• the Police are not part of the Panel but when we've decided on maybe 2 or 3 Officers we ask the Superintendent's Executive Officer to tell us a little more about each of the Officers and from that input the Panel makes its final decision
• this year was extremely difficult and for the first time we had, as well as the recipient, an Officer who was acknowledged as ‘Highly Commended’ and this was announced on the night of the presentation
• we designed a Perpetual Trophy that is kept at the Police Station with each recipient's name on it
• neither the Superintendent nor his Executive Officer know who the recipient is until the Presentation Evening
• each Officer nominated is given a framed Certificate acknowledging their nomination and the Award recipient receives, as well, a smaller version of the Perpetual Trophy
• a Presentation Evening is organised where each Officer nominated and partner is a guest of Rotary and former Award recipients and theirs partners are also guests of the Club as are the Mayor, the NSW Police Commissioner, the Region and LAC Commanders, the Workers' Club President (where we hold the Evening) and the current District Governor and their partners
• we invite the Police Band to play at the Launch and also their 5 piece Jazz Band at the Presentation Evening
• Project Co-ordinator David Bamford was fortunate to have lunch with the Commissioner of NSW Police in March 2003 when the Commissioner visited Blacktown (the invite as a direct result of our involvement with the POTY) and he commented how there had been an increase in community support for the Police and that Rotary's Police Officer of the Year Award was one of the contributors to this change
• the Police Officer of the Year Award is greatly appreciated and highly regarded by the management and staff at our Local Area Command, morale has improved because of the Award and the fact that nominations come from the Community the Officers serve

Updated July 2007