Married couple dedicate over 2000 hours volunteering for the force

Humberside Police – Volunteers’ Week 2020:

Meet the couple who have given over 2000 hours to volunteering for the force.

One of the key aims of Operation Galaxy is to protect vulnerable people, be that victims of domestic abuse, children that are at risk of being exploited or those who are victims of online offences.

But it’s not just our officers and staff doing this, we also have a number of volunteers who dedicate their spare time to helping us protect our communities, especially those that are vulnerable.

As part of Volunteers’ Week 2020 we are putting a spotlight on some of these wonderful people and first up is a married couple who have dedicated over a thousand hours each.

Tony and Joan both registered to volunteer for the force in 2018 after retiring from working for school meals (Joan) and Audi VW (Tony).

From knocking on doors and asking people to take part in our HumberTalking surveys, to contacting victims of crime to offer them advice and support, their volunteering career with us has certainly been varied.

Tony and Joan work very closely with our cyber team, calling victims of online crime to give them advice and help them to protect themselves from future crimes.

The pair have also acted in training exercises to help new officers develop the skills they need to keep our streets safe. Many of these officers are now out on the streets, helping with Operation Galaxy and tackling crime.

But one of Tony and Joan’s favourite things to help with is the #NoMoreKnives campaign, a project funded through the Early Intervention Youth Fund by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Supporting PCSO Rich Whelan, Kayleigh Pepper of the Rich Foundation and Mo Timbo who run the project, the pair have travelled to schools across the force teaching young people about the dangers of carrying a knife.

This is a really important project, it encourages children to recognise the dangers of knife crime and helps them understand ways that they can keep themselves safe.

When asked why they decided to volunteer, Tony and Joan said that they actually got into volunteering for the force by accident really.

They initially volunteered for the Yorkshire 4×4 Response and as part of this were asked to be involved in our Night Challenge initiative. To do so, they needed to register as police volunteers, which they did, and since that day they have never looked back.

In two years they have become valued members of the Humberside Police family, helping teams across the force to keep our communities safe.

When asked why they do it, they said that they get a huge amount of satisfaction out of helping, knowing that volunteering to conduct surveys, speak to victims or teach kids about the dangers of knife crime frees officers up to get involved in operations such as Op Galaxy, attend incidents, investigate reports and tackle crime.

If you’re interested in volunteering with the police you can find out more on the join us section of the website.