A police constable has been recognised for making Douglas a ’safe, nice and fun place to be’.

Patrick Moore, affectionately known as Paddy, has been entered for Isle of Man Newspapers’ Community Police Officer of the Year award by Douglas town centre manager Oliver Cheshire.

It’s the third year that Paddy has been nominated for the award.

Oliver said: ’In my day-to-day role I work very closely with Paddy and he’s always available and willing to help. He genuinely cares about Douglas and making it a safe, nice and fun place to be.

’As well as being very professional, he’s also always up for fun and making people smile. In recent weeks I’ve been out visiting the town centre retailers and Paddy’s name has come up many times - all for very positive reasons.

’Everyone has a story of when Paddy has helped them at some time and how wonderful he is at connecting with people.

’Last TT I was walking down Strand Street and noticed lots of people crowding around. I assumed it was a TT Rider but as I got closer, I realised that it was Paddy and his colleague Mike interacting with visitors.

’ It really was wonderful to see, and for me, summed up the word ’community’ in his job title.

’He’s a pleasure to work with and is most definitely an asset to the police and Douglas as a whole.’

Paddy has been in the police for more than 20 years and is part of the Community Proactive Crime and Traffic (COMPACT) team with sergeant Graham Corran and PC Mike Griffiths, as well as working as a town officer.

The team focuses on issues that affect the community, including policing public events and public safety. He was nominated in 2015 by Kewaigue School, who said: ’Nothing is too much trouble for Paddy’. And he was nominated by teammate Mike, in 2016, who said: ’I’m sure that every officer in the force would support this nomination, as this award could have been created just for this officer and the way he involves himself with the community.’

Paddy said: ’Oli is a pleasure to work with. Both he and Douglas Corporation are very pro-active in assisting the police in promoting safety and enjoyment of the town.

’It’s always good to be recognised in this way but this nomination is really for the COMPACT team. Being part of small team assisting vulnerable members of our community is very rewarding.’