Courageous cops meet the Prime Minister at Bravery Awards

TWO South Yorkshire Police constables who contained and calmed a murder scene – and arrested suspects – were honoured at the National Police Bravery Awards in London.

PC Laura Davis (pictured left) and PC Emma Appleby were “nervous but excited” to attend the event at Downing Street and then the evening reception, where they met Prime Minister David Cameron. 

The pair “put the safety of the public before their own”, during the incident. The officers calmed community tension at the scene, gained evidence from a key witness and arrested suspects following the murder in October 2011.

In December 2012 a man was convicted of murder and received a minimum sentence of 30 years before being able to apply for parole.

Speaking outside Downing Street on 17 October, PC Appleby said: “We’re really excited to be here today. It’s a good experience. Just doing your job and ending up here is really good. We just did what anyone else did.”

PC Davies added: “It is a privilege to be here and to be nominated. I’m quite nervous. It’s an important day.”

Jim Lucas, secretary of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “As police officers, a lot goes unheard of about the work that they do. You have two officers here who were faced with a very serious offence where someone had been killed. There was high tension in the area, they diffused it. It did not escalate. Their only thoughts was to make the area safe.”

In total 64 officers across England and Wales were nominated for the annual awards.

Prime Minister David Cameron praised them for “extraordinary acts of bravery” and for the fact that police officers run towards danger when others would run away.

The overall winner was PC Ian Dibell, of Essex Police, who was shot in the chest by gunman Peter Reeve on July 9, 2012. The 41 year old was fatally wounded after intervening – off duty – in a dispute near his home in Clacton. He was posthumously nominated.