A local neighbourhood police team have scooped a prestigious West Midlands Police Diamond Award for their dedicated service to the community.
The Kings Norton team, headed by Sgt Sharon Brain, won the Neighbourhood Excellence Team of the Year award for their commitment to making their streets safer.
Making Kings Norton safer
For the last 18 months, the team have targeted offenders from a postcode gang who were linked to drug dealing and violence.
They worked with the council to get a ringleader evicted from his home and helped secure a jail sentence against him for burglary.
More offenders were arrested, convicted and moved out of the area after their tenancies were cancelled.
Puppy rescue
The team really won their way into the hearts of the local community after rescuing a missing puppy back in January this year, just hours after it was stolen in a house burglary.
Four-month-old French Bulldog cross Moxley was stolen from a home in Beaks Hill Road, leaving his family distraught. He was found in the garden of a house, officers immediately returning him to a very grateful Foley family.
Sgt Brain said: “It’s one of those lovely moments you go into policing for: the family were devastated at being burgled and losing their beloved pet dog but a few hours later we’d got him back.
“From police intelligence and our own experience we checked out a few addresses on the lookout for Moxley and found him in a back garden.
“A woman their claimed someone had dropped the dog off just 30 minutes earlier which seemed very suspicious.
“Poor Moxley was shaking. He was obviously missing home! So I took him straight back to his rightful owners who naturally were delighted.”
A woman and two children were arrested in connection with the dog theft; the woman later accepted a caution for handling stolen goods as there was no evidence of her involvement in the break-in.
