Rona congratulates Sergeant Cairns for his service

Sergeant Stuart Cairns, who is based at East Dunbartonshire Police HQ at Kirkintilloch, received nine nominations before being named as one of three finalists in the Awards’ ‘Unsung Hero’ category. The response supervisor was praised for his compassion and understanding, and for regularly going above and beyond to take care of his colleagues and helping to lift morale.

SNP MSP Rona Mackay congratulated Sergeant Cairns when she met up with him at the awards ceremony at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.

She said: “Sergeant Cairns is an inspiration, regularly going beyond the day-to-day call of duty in a role which is already very challenging.

“He may have been pipped at the post but his success in reaching the finals of such prestigious annual awards is testament to the high regard he is held in both by the police force and the local community. It was a privilege to meet him last week.”

Divisional Commander, Chief Insp John Menzies thanked Rona for recognising Sergeant Cairns’ success.

He added: “Stuart is an outstanding officer who holds care of people at the heart of everything he does. We are extremely lucky to have him as part of the East Dunbartonshire policing team.”

Sergeant Cairns said: “I have always treated everyone the way I would like to be treated. I’ve done this job for a while now in response policing so I know the demands and the stresses that has on people.

“If you’re looking after a team, I think it’s important to lead by example, and I would hope that positivity then goes into the team.

“It was a worrying time at the height of Covid, everybody had concerns – probably none more so than frontline policing because of what we were dealing with and the contact with members of the public.

“Communication was vital, and understanding their fears – because I had the same fears – but it’s a job that had to be done, we couldn’t shy away from it.”