2025 POLICE BRAVERY AWARDS


The team at Greater Manchester Police. Left to right: PC Nicholas Leach, PC Colin Harrison, and PC Joseph Dearnaley


and the darkness, combined with the sound of the waves, made communication difficult. The officers called out to the woman but received no response. They alerted the coast guard and began making their way along


the sandbank. As they approached, the woman slipped off the sandbank and went under the water, resurfacing twice before disappearing beneath the surface for a third time. Without hesitation, both officers entered the water, swimming out of their depth to reach her. As they approached, she resurfaced, and they grabbed her to prevent her from going under again. PC Dan Brown and a colleague, having heard the situation over


the radio, arrived at the scene. The coast guard had not yet arrived. PC Brown, unable to see or hear the officers or the woman due


to the poor light and the sound of the sea, decided to enter the water himself. He made his way along the sandbank, already up to his waist in water. Despite their exhaustion, Officer A and Officer B managed to


hold onto the woman and began towing her back to the sandbank. Officer A, struggling with exhaustion, went under. Fortunately, PC Brown located the officers at the drop from the


sandbank into the shipping lane and assisted them in dragging the woman the 200 meters back to shore, where ambulances were waiting. The woman received the medical assistance she required.


GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE A team of Tactical Aid Unit (TAU) officers (pictured above) entered dangerously cold waters to save the life of a woman


20 | POLICE | JUNE | 2025


who was drowning. On 5 October 2023, Greater Manchester Police attended a


call to Salford Quays where a woman had entered the water. When they arrived at the scene the woman was in difficulty


and dropping below the water level as her husband and members of the public watched in distress. Whilst PC Colin Harrison, the designated TAU team leader,


maintained command and control and ensured his team members had emergency rescue lines, PCs Nicholas Leach and Joseph Dearnaley bravely entered the water to help the woman. By this point her life was in danger as she was losing the


ability to stay afloat. The officers had to swim approximately 60 meters in freezing cold water, with little visibility on a dark night, to reach the woman. They worked together to secure the woman and themselves


to the rescue lines whilst the rest of the TAU team assisted in pulling them towards the edge of the quay. Thanks to the brave and selfless actions of PCs Colin


Harrison, Nicholas Leach, and Joseph Dearnaley the woman was rescued without serious injury from the water.


GWENT PCs Ryan Blair-Baggs, Robbie Higgins and Abigail Jenkins- Murphy along with Special Constable Mark Lee sustained injuries, including burns, as they tried to save a man from a burning car. The four officers were part of the search for a missing 63-year-


old man from the Cwmbran area on Friday 10 November 2023. PC Blair-Baggs was the officer who first located the car owned


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52