Commendations from judges for four police officers, who tackled armed men, were brought to the attention of Hampshire's chief constable.
On one incident, a rookie stopped three soldiers rushing back to their barracks after a city centre robbery. In a second, an officer was confronted by a kitchen worker armed with a meat cleaver, and in the third, two officers investigating a burglary were confronted by two armed intruders.
The three servicemen had visited Christopher Stewart's surplus army clothing shop in Jewry Street, Winchester, and bought stock. The trio then went drinking and planned to return there for robbery.
Buying three Hallowe'en style masks and equipping themselves with two coshes, they rifled through a drawer, snatching £23 in cash, and one struck the shopkeeper on the head.
But as they headed back to their Romsey Road barracks, they were stopped by a suspicious PC Sally McCormac who called for assistance and they were arrested.
The Royal Green Jackets riflemen - two from Liverpool and the third from Torquay - pleaded guilty on February 10, 1984, to robbery
. Two were jailed for two years and the third received two and a half years.
Commending her coolness and courage, recorder Neil Butterfield said: "With only five months service and alone, you stopped three men who had just carried out a violent robbery."
The court heard the careers of all three soldiers had been wrecked with a dishonourable discharge from the army.
In 1974, a judge heaped praise on PC Ronald Goddard when four police officers carried out a drugs raid on a pub at Ryde on the Isle of Wight.
As the Binstead based officer led a teenager through the kitchen to the staff cottage to enable colleagues to carry out a detailed search, the 19-year-old suddenly darted to a table and grabbed a meat cleaver which he raised in a threatening manner.
PC Goddard said: "He was red in the face and shouting. I ran at him and held his arms tightly. He fell against the table and dropped the cleaver."
The teenager responded by spitting in his face and breaking free. Undeterred, Goddard again rushed at him, and forcing him to drop the weapon, put him in an arm lock before calling for assistance.
Following arrest, he admitted he wanted to give the police "a real leathering" and could have caused Goddard serious injury if he had not been restrained.
After he had pleaded guilty at Winchester Crown Court in 1974 to assault, Judge Ian Starforth Hill congratulated the officer in bringing under control an extremely dangerous situation. "I hope what I can say will come to the notice of the chief constable."
Placing the teenager on probation, the judge told him: "This is a serious offence. If you are to be believed that at the time you had too much to drink, it is probably fortunate for you that you are not standing in the dock with far more serious charges hanging over your head.
"If it was not for the fact you have spent ten weeks in custody and the incident appears to be out of character and general temperament, you would have had a custodial sentence. Assaults on police are not be tolerated at any time by anyone."
In a separate incident, two sergeants, who tackled an drug addict, were also commended for their courage.
Arthur Corbett and Geoffrey Clarke outfaced Walter Savage who had challenged them with a meat cleaver in one hand and a knife in the other.
Judge Kenneth Smithies heard in 1975 how the officers were investigating a burglary at a Chandlers Ford pharmacy after a neighbour heard the sound of breaking glass and were confronted by Savage who held both weapons in a threatening stance.
Prosecutor Patrick Whelan said: "With great courage and skill, they talked the registered drugs addict man into putting down the cleaver and knife when arrested."
The judge commented that society owed a debt to them and police colleagues who were "daily behaving in this cool fashion in the face of what might have been an extremely dangerous situation. But for the good sense, efficiency and courage, it might have been indeed a dangerous situation."
Savage, 28, who admitted theft of the implements and burglary, was jailed for 18 months, the judge telling him: "I am sorry but I have no alternative but to send you to imprisonment."
He then implored him: "Keep up the fight against your addiction, and if you fall from grace, don't compound your crime by doing something more serious however you are driven."
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