Two questions I am frequently asked are do I miss policing and would I ever consider going back. The answers come quite easy; parts of it and no, and they probably wouldn’t have me anyway!

It’s been a long time since I removed my epaulettes for the last time and handed in my warrant card yet I have remained proud of my service and the organisation I worked in for 30 years. I didn’t think anything could change my pride in Sussex Police, that was until last Thursday evening.

I was invited as a guest to the Chief Constable’s Annual Awards, a spectacular event (costing no public money) which celebrates excellence in policing. I expected to be impressed, but was not in the slightest bit prepared to be as flabbergasted as I was.

We hear so much negativity about police officers and policing in general, and it’s right that its shortcomings are exposed and learned from, but seldom do stories of courage, innovation, tenacity, humanity, leadership and sheer hard work such as were shared at the event reach even the inner, let alone, the front pages.

Among 16 categories covering areas such as volunteering, investigation, diversity, leadership, lifetime achievement and even dogs we heard how individuals and teams dedicated their very being to catch criminals, protect our community and deliver an outstanding service for Sussex. An investigator who trawled hours of CCTV far beyond the immediate area to catch a would-be killer, another who was still a student officer when she secured nearly a hundred sexual offence charges and over 30 years in prison for a prolific offender and a volunteer who has staffed Southwater Police Office for 27 years won awards. Alongside them was a financial investigator who enabled hundreds of thousands of pounds of criminal profits to be confiscated, a team who tracked trauma risk in staff and a response officer whose achievements and successes were quite frankly breathtaking.

Of course, these were going to be impressive as they were the winners among scores of nominees for each category, but it wasn’t just these exemplars of policing that inspired me, there was something else.

Outside of the formal part of the evening I met and caught up with dozens of officers and police staff (those who aren’t officers per se but are every bit as important). Despite some feeling understandably brow-beaten by the torrents of horror stories they read in the press, how the public take those as reflecting all of policing and diminishing resources, there was a swell of positivity in everyone I spoke to. Each, whether they were a frontline officer, detective, HR worker, press officer or the chief constable herself, saw how their role contributed to making Sussex a safer and fairer place. None were motivated by financial gain (they’d be in the wrong job if they were), career advancement or even the awards they hoped to win. The sole reason these selfless people get out of bed is to serve the likes of you and me. In some roles, that comes with incredible risk, in most there is a personal toll of some description, but still they turn up, deliver above and beyond expectation and humbly reflect that "it’s all part of the job". Yet still the brickbats come.

The High Sherriff for West Sussex, Mrs Philippa Gogarty, summed it up for me. She, like all High Sheriffs serves for just one year so learns a lot about the public services she oversees. In presenting one award, Mrs Gogarty said words to the effect of being amazed at the gap between the complexity of what the police do and the public’s lack of knowledge of that, leading to their expectations being way wide of the mark.

Policing isn’t perfect, and never will be, but the good exceeds the bad many hundred-fold and were the ordinary people of Sussex to have heard a snippet of what I did at the tremendous celebration of individual and team achievement and met the people behind that, each one of them humble and sometimes bewildered they were even there, they would have come away with the same confidence and excitement that these men and women, who we might walk past in the street, have our backs night and day, whatever that takes.

Former Brighton and Hove police chief Graham Bartlett’s Jo Howe crime novel series continues with City on Fire which is now available in paperback.