The recipient of a West Midlands Police (WMP) Chief Constable’s award for long service says continuing to achieve late into his policing career has made him feel thankful for spending an incredible 50 years in the Force.

Former Federation member Michael (Mick) Braycotton has experienced a momentous year so far in 2025, celebrating his 70th birthday and reaching a half-century with the organisation in which he has acted as an officer, member of staff and volunteer.

This provided him with the perfect opportunity to call time on his long association with WMP, sealing his third and final retirement from the Force in May.

But before he could sign off from active duties once and for all, Mick was recognised by Chief Constable Craig Guildford with an award which cited his ‘commitment and dedication’ to policing.

Mick Braycotton (left) with Deputy Chief Constable Scott Green

“At the end of an amazing journey, to receive this award made me feel really honoured,” he said. “It’s difficult to look back and make sense of 50 years in its entirety, because even if I try to remember everything, there will be some parts I forget.

“I grew up in Walsall and joined the police at the age of 20, because I’d heard about an ongoing recruitment drive and wanted to give public service a go.

“Although I became very keen, I hadn’t spent the years before with any grand design of becoming an officer – but it clearly turned out to be an inspired decision, and one I couldn’t imagine my life without.”

Starting out at Thornhill Road Police Station in 1975, Mick devoted himself to the frontline throughout his 30 years as an operational cop on general duties which later became known as response.

Anti-corruption

After time as both a constable and acting sergeant, he moved over to the Force’s staff body, becoming an intelligence clerk for the anti-corruption unit within its Professional Standards Department (PSD).

It was in this colleague-conscious role he began some of the most meaningful work of his career, taking on extra responsibilities around peers with disabilities.

“I started taking notice of workstation assessments, and they made me realise how much we needed reasonable adjustments for some officers and staff in the Force,” Mick explained.

“I became a member of the Force’s disability support network and, from here, I got involved with the national Disabled Police Association (DPA), where I ended up as both vice-president and secretary. I also became secretary of the Force’s Enable network.

“This was all geared around ensuring reasonable adjustments for the disabled policing community in both locally and nationally – work which really resonated with me, not only because it would protect them, but the forces too.”

Retired

Mick then retired for a second time in 2020, ending his 15-year staff stint in WMP’s traffic process office.

By this point, however, the efforts of the DPA within the West Midlands had seen the Force become a ‘lighthouse’ for disability in policing.

This commitment meant there were ambitions still to be realised – ones Mick could not yet allow himself to step away from.

“It had become one of the main passions of my 50 years in the police. I had to stay on as a volunteer and see our national project through to completion,” he explained.

“This project was to get in place in the Force a national reasonable adjustments policy through the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing. When we achieved that, it changed things permanently for the benefit of every officer and staff member, which I’m so proud of.

Vindicated

“It made me feel vindicated for staying on and giving my time for free, because it proved to me you can always make progress and do good work, no matter how late you are in your career.”

Mick says he will look back fondly on his career for this sense of satisfaction it gave him as much as any accolades it earnt, such as his long service award or the British Empire Medal he received in 2019.

“It may have been a very long time in this profession, but it’s still absolutely flown by. Overall, policing has been a real positive in my life – it’s given me structure, purpose and ambition, and that’s invaluable. I’m still in contact with both WMP Enable and the DPA, and I don’t think I’ll ever truly be able to switch off from what they are doing.

“When I think about the legacy of my service, I think about what I’ve left out there for disabled officers, because it’s the colleagues who remain after you who will keep the police moving forward.”

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