Griffin by numbers:
January 17 sees the 100th Griffin training session in the City of London – an outstanding milestone and we take the opportunity to highlight some of the key Griffin numbers:
100
Since its inception in 2004 in the City of London, 10,000 people have attended Griffin. And there are at least 50 City businesses supporting the project.
All 43 Police Forces in England and Wales now hold Griffin sessions, as do all Scottish forces.
8 countries and capital cities, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Singapore and Hong King have implemented or are considering implementing Griffin.
The Vancouver Griffin trained its 1,000th person in 2012.
10,000 43 8
There have been close to 1,500 Griffin bridge calls over the past nine years, with approaching 500 of those in the City of London and a similar number in Dorset, with 100 in Manchester and Strathclyde.
1,000 1,500
Up to 17,000 lapel pins have been produced and are proudly worn by Griffin trained guards around the world.
For just the month of July in 2011, more than 2,000 people took the Griffin Refresher package.
95% of attendees have a very high satisfaction score for the Griffin training sessions.
17,000 2,000 95%
21,000 Griffin certificates have been issued nationally since launch.
21,000 T
Welsh PC wins Sheriffs’ Award for saving young mother from freezing river
he tremendous bravery of Police Constable Rhys Evans, Dyfed-Powys Police, who saved
a young woman from certain death, has recently been recognised by the Sheriffs’ Award. This a national award for bravery and celebrating heroes, instituted in 2006 by the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals. It is awarded annually by the Sheriffs of the City of London.
PC Evans’ act of bravery began in the early hours of 16 January 2011. Police received a call from Street Pastors that a woman was threatening suicide by jumping into the swollen and fast-running River Cleddau. The Pastors’ persuasions failed and she jumped from the west bank into the raging torrent. In no time, she was swept downstream over a roaring weir, disappeared from view and then re-emerged further downstream.
PC Evans and other officers responded to the call, left their vehicles and ran along the river bank trying to see the woman. Occasionally, in the turmoil and darkness, she was glimpsed in the foaming water in the Pastors’ torch lights. Evans ran further south along the bank to gain advantage on the incident and to find a way of intervening.
From her passivity he knew the only way to save the woman was to enter the water from under the railway bridge across the river. It was virtually pitch black with no ambient lighting and efforts to shout to the woman were drowned out. His plan was to swim across using the bridge columns to reach the woman as she travelled from his right. Disregarding the danger, he jumped into the unlit and murky river. Asked whether he feared for this life, he responded, “You are taught to assess the scene, you look for points of danger, variables such as current strengths and directions, cold, the obstacles and your personal fitness. You then figure out a solution, which was using the bridge’s supporting legs to stagger my swim across the river.”
When he surfaced he couldn’t breathe due to the shock of the extreme cold of the water and his limbs were restricted by the force of the current, its muscle-numbing temperature and his clothing. Worst of all he was being swept away to his left under the bridge. Using all his strength, he fought against the current and just managed to grab the passing
framework of the bridge columns. Fearing he would be overwhelmed by the force of the current, he dragged himself out of the water and inched his way back upstream along a ledge between the struts. He plunged into the current again to try to reach the next pair of supports. He was nearly swept away but managed to gain the next column and repeat the procedure. To his right he could see the torch lights of colleagues and Pastors illuminating the woman‘s progress. She was showing no signs of life or movement.
As she came near, he timed his jump and entered the river for a third time. He fought the current till he intercepted and grabbed her body. “When I intercepted the young mother, I then had to push us both to the shore and find a suitable landing point.” Keeping himself afloat as well as towing the woman, he struck out for the west bank approximately 8 metres away. Despite the current and cold he at last gained the passing bank, but soil and foliage repeatedly gave way as he clawed the mud with his free hand to hold his position for colleagues to reach him.
Eventually, in the darkness, his shouts for assistance were traced and the woman was hauled from the river. Rhys, exhausted, had to be assisted out of the water too. The cold water and raw air temperature meant he could barely stand or speak. The woman, a young mother, was taken to hospital by ambulance and made a full recovery. “In time, when she had recovered, she did come and thank us. We were grateful for that,” says Rhys. Rhys returned to his police station, washed, changed and, after a warm drink, went back on patrol to answer other calls. Asked why he resumed duty, he said, “Camaraderie, working as a police officer, we as a team deal with a number of difficult situations, it pulls us closer together. To have gone home that night and leave my colleagues and friends to face a further difficult incident, goes against the grain. I could go on, so I did.” And how does he feel about winning the award? “It was a great honour.” Well-deserved recognition for a very brave police officer.
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