On Wednesday 15th November, PCSO Costakis Ioannou, in the presence of his family and some of his closest colleagues and friends, was awarded the Metropolitan Police Service certificate of Long and Meritorious Service Award in recognition of 20 years’ service to the people of London and especially for the Greek Cypriot Community. The award was presented by Sir Mark Rolley, Commissioner of the Metropolis on behalf of His Majesty the King.

Costas was born in Deryneia, Famagusta in 1955, and came to the UK as a child. After many years of working in the rag trade and latterly owning a fish and chip shop, Costas chose to join the Metropolitan Police Service as a Police Community Support Officer in 2003, just as these new community policing roles were being introduced across London.

Costas is a well-known and popular member of the London Cypriot community and all that know him will know that this is a role that was made for him. Being stationed out of Kentish Town police station, covering the borough of Camden, where like many other Cypriots he used to live in the 70s, Costas embraced both the ‘community’ side of the role and built strong relationships with local businesses, community groups and schools, including checking in with the priests for a coffee and catch up at the Greek Orthodox churches of All Saints and Apostolos Andreas. Costas also took the ‘policing’ side extremely seriously too and he never runs out of stories for anyone willing to listen….Though always very careful not to say anything he shouldn’t!

Many will have also seen Costas over the years at the Cypriot Wine Festival representing the Metropolitan Service Greek & Cypriot Association (MPS GCA), giving advice to the community about burglary prevention, staying safe online and promoting police recruitment and a career in the Met.

Chairperson of the MPS GCA, Tom Haji-Savva said, “It was an absolute honour to join Costas at his long service ceremony. He has been an esteemed colleague, valued co-committee member and more importantly, a true friend to me for the past 17 years. Costas has dedicated two decades to serving the people of Camden in community policing and in addition, volunteers as a member of our association to support the Greek and Cypriot communities across London and further afield. There is no one better than him at what he does and he was rightly recognised with his long service certificate.”

Congratulations!

By Chriso Ioannou (a very proud daughter)