A CHIEF Constable has spoken of delight after being recognised for his service to policing in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List

Police officers, staff and volunteers from forces across the country have been recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List – and Dyfed-Powys Police is very proud that its serving Chief Constable, Mark Collins has been awarded an honour for his dedicated service.

“I’m absolutely delighted to have received the Queen’s Police Medal, and it’s an honour to have received it as a serving Chief Constable", he said.

"It comes after working a combination of over 34 years as a police officer, in the Special Constabulary, and working in three different police force areas – Dyfed-Powys, Bedfordshire and the Metropolitan Police. "I want to say a big thank you to all my colleagues, friends and staff that have supported me along the way. I’m really proud that I’ve served in every rank in Uniform Policing and in CID up to Chief Superintendent from Constable - it gave me a wealth of experience, and led to me leading on two large national portfolios, Mental Health in policing and group based Child Sexual Exploitation.”

Mr Collins was appointed Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys Police in December 2016.

He then became the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead on policing and mental health in January 2017 and has brought significant leadership to the portfolio. It is a huge task, but he has had some significant success in terms of working with colleagues and partners around mental health in policing.

Mr Collins was invited by Sir Simon Wesley to join the review of the Mental Health Act, which has provided some fundamental recommendations that will change the way we operate as a police service, for instance the complete ban on use of police cells, and the conveyancing of people suffering from mental ill health episodes privately, will go a huge way to protecting the dignity of those people and supporting them through their periods of crisis. Tremendous work is being done across the UK in this field.

In respect of Child Sexual Exploitation he has overseen working effectively with partners, colleagues, and learning the lessons of some large investigations. Chief Constable Collins is passionate about providing excellent support for victims on the victims journey, and has ensured Senior Investigating Officers are provided with a template and handbook of how to investigate these types of offences, and actually recognising and learning from previous investigations.

Mr Collins added: “It's been an absolutely marvellous Christmas present to receive this honour. And I need to thank my family, colleagues and friends once more, for supporting me over the last 30 plus years in policing.”