Six officers have been recognised by the Commissioner after each took extraordinary measures to protect London’s public.
The awards ceremony took place today, Monday 29 April, at the Empress State Building in West Brompton.
Amongst those honoured were four officers who assisted with a medical procedure (thoracotomy) in the middle of a busy nightclub.
PCs Richard Cox, Billy Crutchlow, David Gibson and Nick Waller, from the Central South Command Unit, were awarded a Royal Humane Society Commendation for their actions.
At around 02:00hrs on Sunday, 25 February 2018, PCs Gibson and Waller were called to a pub in Malden Road, Camden to reports of a 44-year-old man unresponsive on the floor.
PC Gibson managed to open the man’s airways which allowed him to breathe again, but he then went into cardiac arrest.
By then, PCs Cox and Crutchlow had arrived on scene with a paramedic and all four officers took turns performing CPR until the air ambulance arrived.
They then supported the doctor while he performed a thoracotomy on the pub floor before the man was rushed to hospital where he sadly died two weeks later.
The officers remained on the scene and were able to identify a suspect who was later charged with murder.
Others recognised at the ceremony include Sergeant Paul Newman, who saved a HGV driver’s life by pulling him from under his vehicle moments before it was engulfed in flames.
On 9 March 2018, Sgt Newman, from the Roads and Transport Policing Command, was on patrol on the A2 by Dartford Heath when he spotted a HGV on fire and signalled for it to pull over.
After stopping, the driver climbed underneath the lorry to try and put out the fire himself, but the officer quickly realised it was at risk of exploding at any moment.
He moved towards the danger and pulled the driver out from under the vehicle and led him away, just seconds before a tyre exploded and the lorry was engulfed in flames.
Both the driver and Sgt Newman escaped any injuries.
A commendation was also given to Detective Constable Gavin Collins, from the Central South Command Unit, who led a four-year operation to disrupt an organised crime group importing drugs into the UK.
DC Collins oversaw the complex operation which culminated in the seizure of 204kg of Class A drugs and £546,000 in cash, with sentences totalling 343 years.
