A Staffordshire man who faithfully cleans police cars week in and week out has become the first winner of the PCC Award for Volunteer of the Year.
Ben Wilson from Burntwood plays a vital role in ‘keeping the show on the road’ for officers in Lichfield Local Policing Team (LPT).
The 26-year-old’s work was recognised alongside other worthy winners at the Staffordshire Police Force Annual Awards ceremony at the County Showground in Stafford on Tuesday night, 8 October.
He was presented with the Police and Crime Commissioner’s inaugural Volunteer of the Year award by Deputy PCC Sue Arnold.
Ben became a vehicle support volunteer in June 2012 and took ownership of keeping the LPT’s vehicles clean and tidy.
A citation about his achievements said: “Whilst volunteering in any large organisation is daunting, Ben soon found his feet and took ownership of keeping the local policing team’s vehicles clean and tidy.
“He has displayed an impressive level of self-reliance in organising himself and the vehicles. He has supported his police colleagues with his flexible approach and he understands that often an officer will hand over keys for their car to be serviced, only to run back out in five minutes needing to take the car out to an urgent request for police assistance.
“Operational officers from both the uniformed local policing team and the specialist departments based at Lichfield recognise Ben’s contribution to keeping ‘the show on the road’ in fulfilling a very necessary, but not particularly glamorous part of day-to-day housekeeping, keeping Staffordshire police vehicles clean and tidy and the kit in good order.
“Ben has reported for duty every Thursday regardless of the weather, and earns the respect of his colleagues for consistently maintaining the fleet.”
In a special message to the event, PCC Matthew Ellis said: “Tonight is about the amazing work everybody is doing to help keep Staffordshire people safe and secure.
“So I want to pay heartfelt tribute, as well as offering my sincere thanks, to the volunteers who do so much from visiting custody suites to washing police vehicles, the PCSOs who are building solid ties with communities, the Specials and Regular Police Officers who are so determined to protect their fellow citizens, all the Police Staff who carry out the myriad of services which support everything else that happens and of course all the families who support all these members of Team Staffordshire.”
