The team from Derbyshire Constabulary picked up the Smarter Detective Award from the Police Federation’s National Detectives’ Forum (PFNDF), during a two-day seminar held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole on Wednesday 9 October.

Operation Doubrava was led by T/D Inspector Carl and his team investigating modern slavery and trafficking in a joint venture between Derbyshire Constabulary and the State Police of Latvia.

Operation Doubrava related to a large-scale conspiracy investigation into a Roma Latvian organised crime group which was trafficking vulnerable victims from Latvia to Derbyshire.

Nine of the eleven defendants were eventually sentenced to a total of 33 years with some serving time in Latvia. All the defendants will be deported to Latvia following completion of their sentences in the UK.

Glyn Pattinson, PFNDF chair, said Operation Doubrava was testimony to the dedication of this team of Derbyshire Constabulary detectives.

“This was a sensitive and upsetting case involving people trafficked from another country and the team from Derbyshire showed compassion and understanding in the way they dealt with the victims of these crimes. The final sentences prove they were exhaustive in their efforts to bring these offenders to justice.”

There was a tie for second place in this category – both teams used technology to tackle property crimes.  South Wales Police Operation Timmia used a secure online portal to allow hundreds of victims of burglary to view and identify more than 2,000 items of recovered property – without the need for victims to attend a police station.

Operation Venice, from the Metropolitan Police won joint second for using data, including imagery, voice recordings and location data from an app to identify key players in a gang committing moped and motorcycle-enabled crime.

Third place was awarded to the Operation Topaz team from Avon and Somerset Police for identifying and disrupting criminals committing child sexual exploitation.