NEWS
Dorset Police Federation 2026 Sergeant of the Year Karen Brown on resilience, leadership, and a life of service
CALM IN THE CHAOS
is received, especially given how I am simply doing what I love doing. Of course, it still feels good to receive such a lovely award, especially given it was as a result of peer nominations.”
Her strong sense of purpose has guided her career and helped her through personal challenges, including serious back pain that required surgery. “My back pain has been difficult, really difficult, and I am still living with it now,” she said. “I have a very definite ‘keep going’ attitude, my life is very busy and therefore I have to keep going.” Karen told POLICE how her work has remained important to her, she said: “I was as uncomfortable at home as I was at work, perhaps even more so, and therefore didn’t feel the need to not be at work. The motivation comes back again to enjoying what I do and a strong work ethic.” She was clear this should not be
expected of everyone though. She added: “Whilst I don’t advocate people being at work when they shouldn’t, I did feel able to and still had every bit to offer even when restricted.” Instead, she focuses on “sustainable resilience, a kind of resilience that lets you keep performing without gradually burning out”. Her approach is simple: “always booking fun things to do outside of work. I work hard but when I finish my shift or set of shifts, that’s my time.” This practical mindset led to one of her
After more than 26 years in policing, Sergeant Karen Brown of Dorset Police remains, in her own words, as energised as she was on day one. Recently named Sergeant of the Year at the 2026 Dorset Police Federation Recognition Awards, she speaks modestly about the honour. “I was absolutely stunned to receive
14 | POLICE | APRIL | 2026
the award,” she said. “It feels slightly odd to receive an award for simply doing my
“I was absolutely stunned to receive the award. It feels slightly odd to receive an award for simply doing my job.”
job. I appreciate I work hard but struggle to recognise perhaps how that hard work
key achievements: the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole summer demand team, created to deal with lower-risk incidents more effectively. “There were a lot of incidents that could be dealt with more effectively and efficiently,” she explained, “but the blocker
was these incidents were being overtaken by those jobs with higher threat, risk
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