PC Sean O'Reilly wins the Contribution to Policing Award
4 December 2024
A police trainer who has “an unwavering passion and commitment” for his job has won the Contribution to Policing Award at the Surrey Police Federation Recognition Awards.
PC Sean O’Reilly’s line manager said: “Sean always inspires his classes of new recruits. I consistently receive messages from colleagues saying how he has gone above and beyond to provide recruits with the best learning and welfare experiences. He has an unwavering passion and commitment for the job.
“Sean has also just taken his Sergeant’s promotion exam and the NIE at the same time, achieving outstanding results of 91% in both. He is someone you can rely on to always get the job done to a high standard.”
PC O’Reilly joined Surrey Police at the end of 2017, after spending 12 years at the British Transport Police.
He said: “I get a lot of satisfaction from watching new recruits coming in with no policing background, straight from university, and developing into police officers.
“I’ve had a lot of experience teaching the Detective degree-holder entry programme, and I hope to shape and mould students into effective police officers, and give them the skills that they’ll take with them onto their next phase.
“I remember my trainer when I first joined the police, and they left a lasting impression on me. Hopefully I do the same and give students a really positive experience while they’re at training school, because it’s a tough old world out there.”
He added: “The team I work with is really great; they are very dedicated officers who invest a lot of energy, time and effort into the students.”
PC O’Reilly said the challenge was trying to fit all the teaching into 16 weeks: “Policing is a very complex job and you have to cover so much while they’re here. You want to do as much as you can to prepare students for the real world when they leave. I try to make the training as true to life as possible. It can’t all just be theory. We try to make it interesting, fun and practical.
“Also, some students have welfare issues and we support them with that. The police is still a family and we need to make sure that our officers are ready, emotionally and mentally, to go out on the streets.”
Surrey Police Federation Chair Darren Pemble said: “Many congratulations to Sean!
“The success of our policing starts with great training, and Sean is an inspiring, approachable and dedicated police trainer who makes sure that all his recruits get the best possible introduction to policing. He’s a worthy winner of this Award.”
PC O’Reilly said he was “shocked and surprised” to win the Award. He said: “Initially I thought it was a wind up! But it’s really nice – sometimes training gets overlooked because it’s not operational. We’ve developed hundreds and hundreds of new starters over the past three years, and that takes a lot of work. The department as a whole deserves recognition for that.”
PC O’Reilly will attend the Surrey Police Federation Recognition Awards on Thursday 12 December.
The lead sponsor for the Awards is Axon.
Also sponsoring are Uniform Mortgages, Serve & Protect Credit Union, Flint House, Police Mortgages, No1 Copperpot Credit Union, Niche, No5 Chambers, Accord, Douglas Rowe Financial, Police Mutual, National Police Healthcare Scheme, The Surrey PCC and Metfriendly.
