Police Officer of the Year 2017
Police Officer of the Year (POOTY) Award 2017
The annual Police Officer of the Year Award (POOTY) was established in 1991 by the Rotary Club of Darwin to recognize the challenges police officers face and say a public thank you for a job well done. The Award involves receiving nominations from the community identifying Northern Territory Police Officers in their community who have shown any of the following values.
Courtesy, kindness, understanding, compassion, courage and devotion to duty are key qualities required in police officers in their normal duties and the nomination can be for one or more of these that the officer has shown in a particular act, a series of acts, or demonstrated ongoing professionalism. Any full-time police officer working in any area of the Northern Territory police force is eligible for nomination.
POOTY Award 2017
The 2017 Police Officer of the Year award ceremony was held on Thursday 24th August at Government House. His Honour, the Administrator of the Northern Territory, John Hardy was present and presenting. Of course Marie was there to keep him on track as well.
The recipient for this year was Superintendent Tony Deutrom who, unfortunately, was unable to attend as he was on well-earned leave. However, in his absence, Police Chaplain Pat King acted as Tony’s proxy and accepted the award on his behalf. She spoke highly of Supt Deutrom, saying, that the feedback she hears is always positive, that his people feel he is caring, fair and just, open and supportive. Given the stress and intensity of policing, Tony looks after his people.
But Tony did return to duty and so on Thursday 2 Novembe
r, with his wife, Belinda, son, Brandon and daughter-in-law Chantal, was our guest at our usual venue. President Jeff welcomed our guests and invited Paul Simon, as Chairman of the POOTY Award Committee, to make the presentation on our behalf.
In his address, Paul stated, “This year represents the twenty-sixth time that the Rotary Police Officer of the Year Award has been presented and we always choose our award recipient, without fear of favour, based on the information we receive from the public. This is not a police award, but a community award. To this end, we take no heed of where the award recipient is physically located and in the past, this has meant, on occasion, we’ve had to work feverishly to bring them into Darwin from far afield. Imagine our surprise when we determined our award recipient for 2017 only to find he was off cruising in Europe/Carribean/ somewhere???”.
He went on to say, “Superintendent Deutrom is a very well respected Commissioned Officer and has worked in the NT Police Force for many years. He is respected because he has significant practical remote policing experience having been posted at Ntaria (Hermannsburg) and Alyangula. He was OIC of Darwin Police Station and currently is Superintendent of Palmerston and Rural.
The many people who nominated Superintendent Deutrom for Police Officer of the Year did so because they recognized that he is exceptional. Not only is his experience and capability as a senior Police Officer respected, but his personal attributes and style have also attracted significant comment.”
Commencing last year, the Committee developed a new perpetual award that transcends the traditional ‘trophy’. For this purpose, we now offer a bespoke piece of artwork by Mr Reggie Sultan of Barrow Creek as an enduring perso
nal momento. Reggie is an Indigenous artist who has prepared a wonderful montage of ‘typical’ policing in the outback through the ages. We believe this new award exemplifies the hard work that our Police have achieved over many decades and will stand as a permanent testament to their dedication to duty and to the public.
In his response, Supt Deutrom thanked the club for the award and gave a special thanks to his wife and family for their long-standing support.
Acknowledgements:
Words Paul Simon
Photography Ray Fauntleroy 
