Former Chichester holiday camp worker is now a police recruit after heroic response to assault

Emma Bennison, who has recently made her first arrest as one of Sussex’s newest police officers, was advised to join the force after her heroic response to hearing a woman’s screams one night in August 2018.

Emma, then a teenagers’ activity manager for a holiday company, said: “I was walking into town and I witnessed what looked to me like a man attacking a lady.

“I screamed and ran down the road [towards them]. He ran off in the other direction.”

Emma asked her sister to dial 999 whilst she administered first aid.

“At the time the adrenaline had kicked in,” she explained. “You don’t think about what you are doing, you just go. Even then I had never even thought about being a police officer.”

Emma said she was asked to give a witness statement, after which she was advised to apply to join the force.

Chichester-based PC Matthew Snelson, who was the first officer on scene at the incident, said: “I was struck that Emma had managed the crime scene and safeguarded the victim in the way a police officer would.

“She was an excellent witness, presenting her evidence in an open minded way. I recognised that she had the instincts of a good police officer.

“Many people would have flapped at the sight of the woman lying on the floor. She did not.

“She was surprised when I told her she would make a good police officer. Too often people – especially women – discount policing as a career as they feel you have to be scrappy, but the opposite is true.