YORK and Midland officers have been recognised for their outstanding performance in the force this year with a York officer awarded for operational achievement.

Ten teams and eight individuals received Recognition of Excellence Awards at the June 13 morning breakfast event held at Perth Zoo’s The Maali venue.

Among them was Sergeant Andrew Galbraith from York who won the operational achievement award for individual finalists.

Mr Galbraith was given the award for his commitment to his community, highlighted during his response to a family violence incident in York in March.

While off-duty, he was alerted to an urgent task in his community and recalled two police officers to attend.

Mr Galbraith then went to investigate the incident area in his personal vehicle, and to determine if more officers would be required.

He had to intervene in the incident, off-duty, and detained an aggressive perpetrator with help from public members until on-duty officers arrived.

During this incident Mr Galbraith put himself in harm’s way and was assaulted.

Mr Galbraith’s actions were deemed to highlight his commitment to protecting vulnerable community members from harm and were judged an example of the duty and care values of WA Police Force being applied on the frontline.

Constable Aaron Mitchell-Gow was nominated as a finalist for his work as a York officer, recognising his performance beyond his rank in disrupting methylamphetamine distribution in his community.

Midland Detectives were nominated as finalists for both the available team categories this year.

In community recognition, Midland Detectives located an abducted 15-month-old child, about 40km away, after deploying interview staff to gather information quickly and effectively.

In operational achievement, Midland detectives’ involvement in resolving serious crimes in their incident with professionalism was recognised and highlighted by their two recent investigations.

The first involved recovering eight stolen vehicles from an outlaw motorcycle gang in October, and charging the perpetrators, and the second was the seizure of illegal firearms stolen during a burglary in
the final two months of 2023.