Spotlight shines on inspirational women working in PCC’s team

To mark International Women’s Day 2025, we share the stories of two amazing women working alongside Police and Crime Commissioner Darryl Preston to keep Cambridgeshire and Peterborough safe.  

International Women’s Day (Saturday, 8 March 2025) is a global event celebrating the huge social, cultural and political achievements of women across the globe as part of the ongoing fight for parity.  

Nicky and Heather share their stories about the work they do to ensure residents feel safe and receive the best possible policing service.  

Nicky’s story  

A journalism and public relations graduate, Nicky started her career as an assistant press officer at Cleveland Police tasked with writing witness appeals and faxing them to local journalists. As technology advanced, Nicky moved 200 miles south to Cambridgeshire to join the Constabulary’s press office team where she led the media strategies for a range of high-profile cases, delivered media training and even joined a Detective Chief Inspector on Crimewatch before landing a coveted role as an Internal Communications Manager.    

A proud mother of two older sons and a lively four-year-old spaniel called Cleo, Nicky has held varied roles within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) from communications and stakeholder management to commissioning and strategic business planning and has dedicated herself to personal growth over the past decade.

Juggling motherhood with professional life hasn’t always been easy – on one occasion she arrived at work with a three-year-old still in the car after forgetting to drop him off at nursery – but thankfully the children are now independent and take themselves to sixth form and work. Today, Nicky blossoms in her role as Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Commissioning.  

Nicky said: “Throughout my career, I have championed equality and spent a decade on the British Association for Women in Policing’s national committee where I met the most amazing female role models. More recently, I have focused on empowering women within the OPCC to take charge of their personal development and achieve their full potential. 

“Within my day job I am constantly humbled by the tireless efforts of colleagues in our third sector who provide support for victims of primarily gender-based crimes such as domestic abuse and sexual violence. In the OPCC we work hard to secure and retain valuable funding so a whole community of women can deliver life-saving support on a daily basis – this makes me proud every day.” 

Heather’s story  

As a former frontline police officer and detective, Heather knew she had the skills and insight to make a difference to public safety across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.  

A graduate in social policy and sociology from Durham University, she joined South Yorkshire Police in 2006 as a uniformed officer and later transferred to Hertfordshire Constabulary in 2009 to become a detective. After holding various detective roles over the next eight years, serving in both the sexual offence investigation team and the major crime team, she was given the responsibility of launching the force’s Child Sexual Exploitation Team called Halo before later returning to uniformed duties as a shift Sergeant.   

Following maternity leave, travel enthusiast Heather took a break from policing to retrain as a self-employed yoga teacher running worldwide yoga retreats in exotic countries such as Sri-Lanka. While she enjoyed the flexibility around parenthood, she missed being part of a team and successfully applied for the role of Communities Policy Officer with the PCC’s team in 2023.  

Heather, who lives with her husband, eight-year-old daughter and 13-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel ‘Buttons’, is now Senior Policy Officer in Governance – a role that she is not only passionate about but feels utilises all her of previous skills and experience in operational policing. The role supports the PCC to hold the Constabulary to account and to reassure the public the force is functioning both efficiently and effectively.  

Heather said: “The OPCC has enabled me to have the balance between doing the work that I love and have always been passionate about, while being present for my family and having a healthy work like balance.”