Police officer recognised for bravery after incident involving drink driver in Banbury

A Thames Valley Police officer who was left with whiplash and a severely bruised back after being violently attacked by a drunk driver and his passenger, has won a Thames Valley Police Federation Bravery Award.

PC Jason Brinklow and his police dog Cass – who is also winning the award – will now join 12 colleagues from across the policing area who are being celebrated in person at the annual prestigious event.

It was in September 2018 when the crime fighting duo were responding to reports of a fight at a social club in Banbury when the incident occurred.

One of the men involved in the fight had left the scene in his car and was believed to be drunk.

After patrolling the area, PC Brinklow - who was single crewed - found the vehicle and flashed his blue lights to get the driver to pull over.

The driver ignored the call to stop before pulling up on the drive outside his house. As PC Brinklow got out to deal with the incident, the driver and his passenger suddenly turned on him, running towards the single-crewed officer.

The passenger initially tried to stop PC Brinklow from dealing with all the other occupants of the car before the driver attacked him. As he did so, the passenger attacked the officer from behind, kicking him hard in the back.

At this stage, PC Brinklow managed to deploy PD Cass, but the young dog was still in training and wasn’t able to deter the attackers.

Incredibly PC Brinklow got partial control of the situation back after he managed to fend off the attacks from the passenger and the driver. Without handcuffs, he was unable to make the arrest until backup units arrived.

PC Brinklow said: “It’s very rare to find that level of aggression from an individual, let alone two, at the same point.

“Usually somebody who is driving drunk will either have the attitude ‘you’ve caught me, I’ll stop, I’ll put my hands up’ and that’s easy to deal with.

“Or, they’ll try and run away. It is very, very rare for them to turn and to fight in the way that these individuals did.

“At the time, it’s just another job, I suppose, it’s just another incident.

“But on reflection, it’s easy to see how it could have gone differently. I could have easily sustained worse injuries from it. I now carry a Taser, whereas I didn’t back at the time.”

The passenger was discharged despite admitting the assault while the driver was handed community service and a fine.

Thames Valley Police Federation Chair Craig O’Leary said PC Brinklow had shown real courage in proceeding with the arrest while single-crewed.

Craig said: “He’ll say it’s just another job, but it wasn’t. It was a violent, cowardly attack on one of our officers by two extremely aggressive men.

“Despite the attacks on Jason, he – with the assistance of Cass - still stopped them getting away and kept the thugs engaged until back up could arrive to make the arrest.

“Jason is a credit to our force and is a worthy winner of a bravery award.”

PC Brinklow will attend an awards ceremony in the Thames Valley Policing area on September 9, where the overall winner of the Thames Valley Police Federation Bravery Awards will be announced.