2024 POLICE BRAVERY AWARDS


REGIONAL WINNER 3


West Mercia Police


PS Lee Baker and PC Thomas Simmonds PS Shannon Murphy, PS Lee Baker and PC Thomas Simmonds


PS Shannon Murphy, PS Lee Baker and PC Thomas Simmonds formed a human chain to rescue a woman from her car which was beginning to sink to the bottom of a river.


In April 2023, a woman was rescued


from her Mini in Worcestershire after it ended up in a flooded ford between Pershore and Drakes Broughton. Arriving on scene, the car was almost completely submerged and about 10 metres downstream due to heavy rainfall causing flash flooding. Thinking on their feet, the officers skilfully formed a human chain and waded in to offer reassurance and maintain her calm demeanour. Despite the car’s electrics being disabled by the water, the officers broke open the driver’s side window and pulled


her to safety, just moments before the vehicle sank.


Assessed at the scene by the West Midlands Ambulance Service, the woman remarkably did not require treatment and fully recovered. Without the officers’ decisive


intervention and prompt, courageous actions, her life would have been in danger. PS Baker said: “This was a great display


of team work. It goes to show what you can achieve together. If we didn’t, that lady would have lost her life.”


17 | POLICE | AUGUST | 2024


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