2025 POLICE BRAVERY AWARDS
The team from Thames Valley police On 25 May 2024 at around 10pm, Sussex Police received a
report of a vulnerable missing child in crisis, prompting a large- scale search operation. A drone unit began searching the beach and detected a faint heat signature in the sea, guiding officers to the location.
PS Seekings and Lees used torches to find the teenage girl, who was more than 50 meters out to
sea.They observed her head going under the water multiple times, indicating she was in significant trouble and at risk of drowning. Although the coastguard was called, their estimated time of arrival was too long to prevent potential loss of life. With the girl now 60 meters out to sea in near pitch-black
conditions, the officers realised they could lose sight of her if she went fully under. They made the decision to enter the water. They swam out
and rescued the young girl, pulling her back to safety. She was treated by paramedics and taken to the hospital. The actions of PS Seekings and PS Lees were crucial in saving the young girl’s life, demonstrating bravery and selflessness by putting themselves at risk. Without their intervention, the child could have drowned.
THAMES VALLEY
PCs Heather Bainbridge, Matthew Aldridge, Mike Allington, Abbie Chambers, Prathaban Puvindran, and Patrick Rumbol (pictured above) swiftly detained an intruder with a weapon in the hallway of a secondary school. In March 2023, at around 11am, Thames Valley Police officers were
called to St. Joseph’s Secondary School in Slough following reports from the headmaster of an intruder with a possible firearm. The school was full of pupils and staff at the time, and the headmaster initiated a lockdown, moving all pupils to a safe location away from the suspect. The suspect was agitated and
30 | POLICE | JUNE | 2025
threatening staff in a corridor, claiming he had a firearm and was “ready to die” and that “everyone else was going down too”. Unarmed officers were initially deployed to the school. PS Andrew Grant coordinated the response, and two double-crewed units attended the scene and liaised with the headmaster. Upon seeing the suspect with his Taser drawn, PC Rumbol challenged him to take his hands out of his pockets. The suspect refused, and PC Rumbol decided not to use the Taser as it would have been ineffective due to the suspect’s proximity and his puffer jacket.
Unaware that the suspect did not have a firearm but had a large kitchen knife hidden in his waistband, all seven officers grabbed him, took him to the floor, secured, and detained him. The suspect actively resisted during the struggle, and the knife fell out of his waistband, before being arrested shortly after.
WARWICKSHIRE PCs Mateusz Dabrowski (right) and Dominic Strange (above right) risked their lives to save a trapped driver from a burning car. In July 2023, a run of the mill vehicle stop turned into a high-speed pursuit, which took a turn when the suspect’s vehicle crashed, caught fire, and trapped its unresponsive driver. The pursuit came to a violent end when the suspect vehicle collided with another car, resulting in serious damage to both vehicles. The impact left the car wedged in a hedgerow, blocking access to both front doors and trapping the unresponsive driver inside. As flames began to consume the vehicle, the two officers sprang into action.
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