A DEDICATED Greenock police officer who has gone above and beyond the call of duty has been handed a top award.

Sergeant Danny Godfrey has served in Inverclyde for more than 10 years and been at the forefront of many major incidents, covert operations and campaigns.

He received a gong at the Renfrewshire and Inverclyde Divisional Police Awards for ‘Making A Difference’.

Modest Sergeant Godfrey, 53, said: “I am quite taken aback. I always prefer that the work of other people is praised. 

“I like to work behind the scenes. I prefer to see myself as a mentor and try to turn the people who work with me into people who care about the community and understand what’s going on.

“I’ve spent a few years doing that and lots of people have passed through my sergeant-ship.”

Sergeant Godfrey is based in community policing in ward 1 but has also served as local authority liaison officer.

He hails from Pollok in Glasgow and was a BT engineer before joining the force at the age of 30.

He said: “I arrived in Greenock from South Lanarkshire which was a really busy, intensely urban and gritty area and found that Greenock was equally as challenging because of the range of offences from minor theft to very serious crimes.”

But he says he also soon discovered that Inverclyde is a special place to work.

Sergeant Godfrey, who is married with two children, said: “It is a very unique community, you can’t succeed here if you don’t care about the place.

“You can’t be an outsider if you want people to trust you, and having previously worked in urban and anonymous areas that was something I really like about Inverclyde.

“I know what the real issues and problems in Inverclyde are and I have a good relationship with elected members and press liaison with the Telegraph.”

Sergeant Godfrey says he’s seen the strength of community feeling several times through the years, particularly when tragedy struck at Cappielow in 2014 when Morton fan Andy Kemp, 74, collapsed due to a suspected heart attack.

Sgt Godfrey recalled: “I was match commander when the poor chap died and I stopped the game.

“For 20 minutes when paramedics tried to save him the Morton crowd were exemplary and helped to facilitate everything.

“When the man was being carried towards the ambulance, the crowd started to applaud.

“That to me showed what it was like to be part of the Inverclyde community. People were so generous afterwards and together with the club made donations to the St Andrew’s Ambulance Service.”

Danny has also regularly gone the extra mile in his job, once continuing to search for a missing person hours after his shift ended and in doing so saving the woman’s life.

He said: “It was 2am when we found the woman.

“She had driven into the Greenock Cut car park and was just about dead. We called an ambulance and it saved her life.”

Area commander Elliot Brown says he considers himself fortunate to have Sgt Godfrey on his team.

The chief inspector said: “He’s delivered a great service to the people of Inverclyde and has been community policing sergeant for ward 1 for many years and built up great relationships with the community.

“He has a ‘can do’ attitude and we are very lucky to have him here in Inverclyde.

“He has incredible local knowledge of the environment and the people.

“He is an outstanding officer.”