A DUDLEY police officer has proved he is top of the cops by being crowned West Midlands’‘Beat Officer of the Year’.

Pc Paul Davies, who is based in the Wren’s Nest and Milking Bank neighbourhood team, was nominated for the award by his colleagues for all the work he does with young people in the community.

Pc Davies spends much of his time working with school children at Wrens Nest Primary, Priory Primary and Castle High and has set up after school activities to keep the youngsters busy.

Dudley North Inspector Chris Dowen, who nominated Paul, said:“He is born and bred in the Wrens Nest, so he has a real passion for working with youngsters from the area.

“He has started up,and is running, some really innovative projects with the children including football sessions – and has even organised horseriding for those who don’t want to play football.”

He added: “Paul has also set up arts and crafts clubs as well as drama clubs and has carried on working with some of the youngsters involved in the Leaps and Bounds project by getting them involved in amateur dramatics groups, so they can carry on with it that way.

“He does such a lot of great work and we thought this should be recognised. It is great for us to have the winner in our sector.”

Paul is set to collect his award from the Chief Constable at the police headquarters in Birmingham in the next few weeks, before he travels to London in November for the national awards where he will be up against 42 other police forces from around the country.

However a modest Pc Davies, who has been in the force for nearly 20 years, said the award was for a team effort and not just to recognise his work.

Paul said: “I was shocked at first to hear I had won – but it is not just for me. I couldn’t do my work with the schools without my colleagues as they pick up a lot of my other work.

“This is a nice job to have, especially going back to where I was brought up. But the good work hasn’t happened over night, it has taken a good two, three years to get back into the estate and get the trust of the community.”