May 2000 Volume 81 Number 5 "serving the protectors"
Police Association Rewards Expo Excellence
By Brett Williams

he SAPOL Mounted Operations Unit has added yet another plaque to its vast array of awards following the Police Expo 2000 last March. Participating in the day-long family event, the unit displayed it prize ribbons, trophies, photographs and decades-old memorabilia on step-like shelving painstakingly constructed from hay bales.

Weeks of preparation and hard work by mounted officers and volunteers paid off when, in the late afternoon, Police Association president, Peter Alexander, judged the display as the best presented at the expo.

Mr Alexander said that, with so many high-quality police displays to consider, his solo-judge role was extremely difficult.

“I was just so impressed with the mounted division display,” he said. “It identified its history, but also had a current aspect to it. Obviously a lot of hard work was done by the people involved, and I think it was an ideal choice for the award.”

Mr Alexander presented a Police Association plaque to Mounted Operations Unit officer-in-charge, Senior Sergeant Anthony Fioravanti, for the best presented police display.

Delighted to receive the award, Sgt Fioravanti said the aim of the display had been to show the public the many operational purposes which horses serve within law enforcement.

A video on mounted operations had run throughout the day, while a stud book - which lists all the unit’s horses from as far back as the 1920s - was also on show. Visitors’ attention was equally drawn to old operational uniforms and a saddle rig.

“A lot of people stood there and read all our bits of information, looked through our photos and watched our video,” Sgt Fioravanti said. “So it wasn’t something where people would walk in one end and out the other in 30 seconds. They stayed for quite a while.

“I had a look at a few other displays and thought they’d give us a good run for our money. Our members have a lot of pride in the section, and I suppose that’s what we were aiming for: the award.”

Sgt Fioravanti said after the expo that a previously-awarded plaque had been removed from the unit’s office to make way for the Police Association award.

A second Police Association award - for the best presented non-police display - was won by British-based power company, National Power. Selected by Deputy Commissioner Neil McKenzie on the association’s behalf, the company’s display aimed to show children how electricity is generated.

National Power operations and maintenance manager, Richard Llewellyn, said children responded excitedly throughout the day.

“We had a mechanical generator on which people were winding and generating electricity for themselves,” he said.

Children were enthralled to see a fan rotate, a loud speaker work and a light bulb glow - all from creating their own electrical energy.

“We also had what’s known as Jacob’s Ladder, where we had two high-voltage probes inside a vacuum,” Mr Llewellyn explained. “Children were able to generate sufficient voltage to see the electricity arcing from one probe across to the other.”

Deputy Commissioner McKenzie said that, while all displays had been “very good”, he considered National Power’s to be “head-and-shoulders above the rest”. He said its simple explanation of the electricity system was its winning feature.

“They (National Power representatives) had given it a great deal of thought,” he said. “They treated the day not as a token issue, but tried to put a display on that fitted in with the theme of the expo in a very meaningful way.”

Mr Llewellyn said National Power was “over the moon” about winning the award. He said the plaque would hang in reception at the company’s soon-to-be-completed Pelican Point power station.

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