Senior officer wins national lifetime achievement award

At the British Association for Women in Policing (BAWP) Awards T/Superintendent Manjit Atwal was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award 2022.

T/Supt. Atwal was honoured on Monday 13 June for her “exemplary” policing work spanning 26 years. In that time, she has been an outstanding role model to her colleagues, not only excelling in her current role, but also finding the time to be an active part in the Sikh Police Association, the Women’s Inclusive Network and is also a nationally trained Hostage and Crisis Negotiator and a firearms commander.  

Manjit makes time to help develop others in their career and is an “exemplary advocate” for those underrepresented in policing. She provides coaching and mentoring to a number of officers through promotion or personal development programmes. 

Her career to date has crossed a number of policing disciplines, including front line uniformed policing; youth offending; operational planning; staff officer to the chief officers; the local and regional intelligence arena and counter terrorism and neighbourhood policing when she was the Leicester City Centre neighbourhood policing commander, working with Leicester City Council to address the issue of homelessness and begins and supporting vulnerable women engaged in prostitution.

She was also awarded the QPM in 2020 for being a “truly inspiring woman in policing” and was named Civil Servant of the Year at the 2022 British Sikh Awards.

She is currently seconded to the College of Policing as the project lead on the National Police Chiefs Council taskforce for Violence Against Women and Girls.

Presenting her with the award T/Inspector Liz Barnett from the BAWP Awards Committee said; “Manjit personifies what exceptional ability and merit it takes to be a true leader in her field.

“She has consistently displayed tenacity and drive for furthering policing and delivers this with the full trust and support of her peer group and managers.

“She is a truly inspiring woman in policing.”

T/Supt Atwal said; “I always wanted to be a police officer and I still love what I do now as much as I did on the very first day I joined.  I am very honoured to be given this award.”

Manjit was also highly commended in the leadership category.

Manjit was not the only officer from Leicestershire Police to have their work recognised;

• Dominique Allen - Lifetime Achievement (Highly Commended)
• DC Sarah Le Boutillier – winner of the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) Prevention and Detection of Violence Against Women Award 2022 and was highly commended in the BAWP Excellence in Performance category.
• PC Abigail Barker - Bravery (Highly Commended)