Kate Salesse of Greater Manchester Police’s Forensic Services Branch, was declared the winner of the PPE (Personal Protective Clothing) Section of The Business Manager Awards, presented as part of the Workwear and Corporate Clothing Show in Birmingham (1st April). 

The award was presented by fashion and workwear design icon, Jeff Banks, at a glittering award ceremony held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel at Birmingham’s NEC.

As a former Crime Scene Investigator herself, Kate Salesse knows the importance of fit-for-purpose scenes of crime garments that offer protection to the operatives and also safeguard the crime scene from contamination. It was for developing the Microgard 2000 SOCO protective overall and overboots that she was nominated for the award.

The outfits feature blue binding, non-linting fabric to prevent crime scene contamination. As well as being fit-for-purpose, the outfits also had to comply with an array of EU directives and achieve CE marking and the project to develop the outfits took 2 years in total.

Kate started work with GMP in 1995 as a Crime Scene Investigator. In 2000, she was promoted to Senior Crime Scene Investigator and Crime Scene Manager and in 2003   became CSI Unit Manager. She has been in her current role for 2 years and has responsibility for 333 staff members, of which 152 work routinely at crime scenes.

The outfits, which were developed in conjunction with Microgard Limited are now available nationally to all police forces and are used in other related disciplines, e.g. hospitals, fire service.

"This is worthy recognition of Kate’s
efforts to continuously improve her officers’
safety and comfort. Her input into the design of the garment was integral to the creative process and we are very proud of our ongoing working relationship with GMP”  
Paul Bryce, Product & Marketing Manager

» View Microgard 2000 Soco product detail