Part-time policeman Tony Hindle is special - after pounding the streets across Bradford for nearly four decades.

The Special Constable's devotion to duty for 37 years has earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award from West Yorkshire Police's top officer.

And the Section Officer, who has been stabbed, shot at, hit with a hammer and arrested four murderers during his long service, has no intention of hanging up his helmet yet.

"Subject to health, I aim to complete 40 years as a Special. That would be a milestone," said Mr Hindle, 56.

He joined the ranks of the boys in blue in 1969, being originally based at the former Lidget Green station, and is the sole surviving City of Bradford Police officer.

Quickfire promotions led to him becoming a superintendent in 1976 and he has served throughout the Bradford divisions, including spells at Queen's Road, Idle and Toller Lane. He is currently covering Keighley, Bingley, Shipley and Ilkley.

"I am still carrying out a frontline policing role, on uniformed patrol and going to all the calls," he said. "That's the part I enjoy. As long as I am on the streets I am happy."

Mr Hindle, who was born in Manningham but now lives in Brighouse, is thought to be the UK's most decorated Special Constable with more than 20 awards, crown court judges and chief constable's commendations and certificates of merit.

His honours include the Queen's Medal. He was recently given a long service medal and last year he was awarded a West Yorkshire Police Authority trophy for outstanding police work and was commended for disarming a man armed with a knife and a gun in Wilsden.

But Mr Hindle said the Lifetime Achievement Award he was presented with by Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison at the Bankfield Hotel in Bingley last night was the best of the lot.

He said: "They tell me I am the most decorated Special in the UK. But of all the awards I have received this one is the greatest honour because it is from people who know me and have selected me."

Mr Hindle works a minimum of 24 hours a week as a Special, normally on night shifts, alongside his full-time job as director of a private medical company. He was encouraged to join the Specials by a friend who was a PC, after he failed to get in the regular force because of his lack of height - he was just half an inch too short of the regulation height at the time.

He has worked on the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry, the Bradford City fire disaster and all the Bradford riots and helped to rescue seven children from a fire at a women's refuge in 1996.

Two years into his service he was shot at by a man wanted for murder, and in 1984 he was stabbed after being called to a dispute between two men in Manningham.

He has twice had his nose broken and had his ear stitched back when it was ripped off in a high speed crash during a police pursuit of a stolen car.

In one year he arrested nearly 300 people - most Specials are glad to reach double figures.

"It has been a colourful career, but thoroughly enjoyable," said Mr Hindle. "I have arrested four people for murder, which is unusual. I will do what they expect of a regular policeman.

"Nowadays you are dealing with different areas of policing and you have to be more aware of some dangers, like terrorism, guns and the drug culture.

"Policing has been my life and all my service has been in the Bradford area. It's unusual for a Lifetime Achievement Award to be offered to a part-timer like myself. But I am certainly the longest-serving Special they have got and probably the most active and colourful."

e-mail: steve.wright @bradford.newsquest.co.uk

  • Start or join a debate on this issue in our online forum - Click here