Force bids farewell to ACC Tonya Antonis on retirement

“We all join policing because we want to make the world a better place.

“As I step away I am really proud that I can say that I did what I set out to do: I did make it better for those victims – I can look back and know I made a difference”.

On her final day before retirement after a 28-year career catching criminals and serving the public, Assistant Chief Constable Tonya Antonis has some parting words of advice for the next generation Durham Constabulary officers following in her footsteps.

“Be true to your values, do things for the right reasons and you won’t go far wrong”.

“Joining the police was the best thing I ever did: it has been a real privilege and the last two years which I spent at Durham has been the real icing on the cake.

“It was a big move for me to come to Durham, having done all my service at Suffolk I hadn’t expected to be anywhere else, but then the opportunity arose and it was absolutely the right choice. From day one, everyone has been so welcoming and so positive. We have some great people in Durham Constabulary, it really does feel like a family here, and perhaps you can see that more easily when you arrive from somewhere else”.

That policing family led by Chief Constable Rachel Bacon said farewell to ACC Antonis today. A hugely popular figure with all ranks, ACC Antonis joined Durham Constabulary in February2002 – a key member of the executive decision-making team. Her role over the last two years has been varied: from overseeing the development of Right Care, Right Person, which governs the emergency services’ response to mental health incidents, to leading Durham’s investigation into an armed feud between organised crime groups. She is also known as a passionate advocate for the role of women in policing.

Tonya was a relatively late-arrival to the police service, but she thinks that late start possibly helped her as her career progressed. She left school at 16 and didn’t become a constable until 1996 when she was 29, having first worked with Customs and Excise at the port of Felixstowe and in advertising sales with her local newspaper, the East Anglian Daily Times.

“I think when I started I had the benefit of a bit of life experience and also I had no ambition to climb the ranks – that wasn’t in my mindset at all. I’d been a PC for 10 years before I put myself forward for promotion to sergeant – every step I took forward was because I wanted to influence change and make things better, which meant I needed a higher rank to do it”.

Policing has changed beyond recognition since the mid-1990swhen PC Antonis reported for duty for the first time.

“The first shift I had was a nightshift in a rural part of Suffolk with my tutor, who was reaching the end of his service. I can remember worrying beforehand about staying awake for the whole night and just wanting to get it right – we ended up driving around all night and didn’t get called to a single job.

“It was different then: I’d been given my police-issue skirt and a handbag with a truncheon in. My first arrest was a well-known prolific burglar, I had to hitch my skirt up to chase him across the roads, but I made the arrest and then carried out the interview and he admitted everything under interview and we got a result: I remember thinking: ‘well, maybe this isn’t so difficult after all’.

Tonya went on to serve in a variety of uniformed and detective roles at Suffolk, working her way up to Detective Chief Superintendent, having served as County Policing Commander, with a background in public order, and has worked in both Cyber and Intelligence.

But it is her time in Safeguarding which made the deepest impression, where her dedication to getting justice for the most vulnerable victims earned her a reputation as getting a conviction from every single case she got to court.

“The jobs which stay with you are those child protection jobs from my time in safeguarding: they were the most challenging, those were the cases that kept me awake at night worrying about the vulnerable victims, but they were also the most rewarding.

“The convictions we got were down to those really brave victims, incredible people who stood up and told their stories. It was harrowing, but they were so strong”.

A keen cyclist and runner, Hertfordshire-born Tonya has previously represented her country in the gruelling sport of triathlon, including winning silver for Great Britain at the 2010 European Championships held in France.

Only this month, the superfit officer completed a gruelling 100-mile cycle ride in memory of former Durham officer PC Jonathan Green to raise money for a charity helping the families of police officers and staff who have lost their lives on duty.

Now aged 56, she plans to take retirement more leisurely, with her husband at their adopted home in Weardale.

“I will decompress” she said. “I plan to walk the dog, ride my bike through those beautiful parts of County Durham which we haven’t visited yet and just enjoy having time with the family.”