COMMUNITY service is at the heart of everything he does, for Mansfield's Senior Constable Mitch Copey, the proud recipient of the Peter Twomey Award presented by the Mansfield Rotary Club last week.
Acting Senior Sergeant Melanie Walker provided an outline of Snr Constable Copey's career path who was transferred to Mansfield from Emerald.
Leading Senior Constable George Crawford, Senior Constable Ken Dwight and Mark Ross (now retired) past recipients of the award were in attendance.
The Peter Twomey Award, presented by Rotary, honours the great work police officers do in our local community.
The Rotary Club of Pascoe Vale is the origin of the award; however, it is now a much wider program spread over both metropolitan and regional Victoria in Rotary District 9790.
The award is named after one of Pascoe Vale's members, the late Peter James Toomey who died in 2014.
He had been a serving police officer with the Victorian police service from 1967 to 2002.
Criteria for the award requires nominees to have a minimum of two years' service in the local police area concerned.
They need to be nominated by the officer in charge of each police station and endorsed by the local area commander and divisional commander.
The officer will have demonstrated outstanding service to the community with particular emphasis on police values of flexibility, leadership, integrity, respect, professionalism and support to both the police service and their community.
In addition, the member's overall work ethic and contribution to the work environment and that of the community is taken into consideration.
“Senior Constable Copey is a highly respected member of the Mansfield Police who is regularly called upon by both his colleagues and supervisors alike to provide leadership, knowledge and expertise in a number of policing fields," said Snr Sgt Walker.
"Mitch has built an exemplary reputation amongst his peers, which is also often recognised by members of the Mansfield community.
"Mitch is a natural leader who excels in community engagement, often in extreme conditions such as conducting search and rescue operations within the Victorian High Country," she said.
"He has built strong relationships with members of other agencies such as Ambulance Victoria, the CFA and the SES.
"These relationships and Mitch’s can do; no fuss attitude has contributed to him consistently providing a high level of compassion, friendship and service to the community," Snr Sgt Walker said.