The public vote for the Met Excellence Awards is now open.

This year Londoners are being given the opportunity to cast their vote in two unique categories.

The Met Excellence Awards is the force’s annual celebration of the outstanding work achieved throughout the year by the best of the Met’s detectives, officers, police staff and volunteers.

For the first time, nominations for the Safer Neighbourhoods Team of the Year and Special Constable of the Year are being put to a public vote to decide the winner.

The public vote is open between Monday 15th  January and Friday 16th February 2018.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Friday 9th March.

The nominations for the Safer Neighbourhoods Team of the Year are:

Burnt Oak Safer Neighbourhoods Team
The team worked with partners during a year-long initiative to combat a rise in anti-social behaviour in their community, reducing it by 52 per cent. This won the officers praise from local residents for their efforts. The team tackled the issue through a number of initiatives. These include arranging lighting in  areas identified for drug use,  stopping access into areas known for  drink and drug related violence, targeting fly-tippers and illegal street traders  and taking part in the Community Payback Scheme to remove litter caused by street drinkers.

Tooting Safer Neighbourhoods Team
The team has targeted anti-social behaviour, drugs and knife crime. They secured convictions for gang members, executed more than 50 warrants, carried out numerous weapons sweeps and seized more than £150,000 worth of drugs. The Community Knife Crime Forum and Nicholas Stewart Project have praised the team’s achievements and their work to resolve community tensions during the Muslim festival of Ashura which earned them the Community PEACE award.

Tottenham Green Safer Neighbourhoods Team
The team has worked tirelessly to tackle high crime and build community confidence. As a result of the team’s intelligence gathering and weapon sweeps, 15 warrants have been executed and 124 arrests made. Patrols conducted in an area of high knife crime and robberies led to 180 stop and searches. The team has visited local schools and colleges and tackled anti-social behaviour by working with the council to clean-up the local park and install a public gym. The officers engage proactively with residents via social media, attend numerous community events, and have set up neighbourhood watches

The nominations for the Special Constable of the Year are:

Curtis O’Regan – Special Police Constable, Emergency Response Team, Brent
Curtis has been a special constable since 2011. Last year, he worked 1,314 hours to help his colleagues police London. Examples of his achievements include a proactive stop he made which led to two arrests and the recovery of over £100,000 of stolen vintage whisky. Curtis’ desire to help others does not stop there. He also volunteers with the Army Cadet Force.

Geoff Tatman – Special Police Sergeant, Vehicle Enforcement Team
Geoff has served in Greenwich borough for several years.  He has been instrumental in forming a new Specials’ Vehicle Enforcement Team, designed to seize hundreds of uninsured and stolen vehicles. A member of the public, stopped for speeding, wrote to say the advice Geoff gave him probably saved the life of a man who stepped out in front of him. Geoff also set up the Eltham Park Festival, which was attended by over 2,000 people in 2017 and policed by 20 of his fellow special constables.

Shane Clarke – Special Police Sergeant, Barnet
Shane volunteers on average 48 hours a week on top of working full time. He manages the development of all the borough’s special constables and trains new recruits. Shane has organised joint operations and set up an initiative to deploy specials to work with different teams and boroughs across the Met, including CID and the Wanted Offenders Unit.

Victoria Leopard – Special Constable, Volunteer Police Cadet Unit, Enfield
Victoria has volunteered more than 800 hours as lead volunteer in Enfield’s Cadet Unit where she organises and runs Cadet Camps, preparing them for annual competitions. She also leads two squads. As a result of her work, Enfield Volunteer Police Cadets has four new volunteer instructors. Victoria is credited with making a visible change to the attitudes of the young people attending Enfield Cadet Unit, and has been described as an excellent role model to them.

The Met Commissioner, Cressida Dick, said:

It’s wonderful to see so many people nominating their colleagues and showcasing the great work that’s done every day in the Met. I’m really looking forward to my first Met Excellence Awards as Commissioner. It should be a fantastic celebration of the best of the Met and the people that make it happen.

More details of each nomination can be found on the official Met voting page at www.met.police.uk/met-excellence-awards-2018 .