LPD and Civilian Awards Ceremony 2012

uh and before the chief starts um I do have to say that when we do this I always make sure and as shanki said in this prayer uh to remember that many of you all of you have families some of you have fathers husbands you have Partners uh and your sons your daughters and we recognize and we thank your families of many of who are here today for allowing you to serve in this job for allowing you to put your life on the line and as we know and I've only been on the committee for 9 years and in the nine years uh we have lost two officers in the line of duty uh we've had um incidents such as the Mackenzie Road incident where officers were harmed so this is not a job where uh we think that you are not putting yourselves in harm way we know that you are putting yourselves in harm way we know that you are allowing your family member to put yourselves in harm way and we want you to know that we are always thinking about you and your families and that we are always recognizing that you are allowing your families to be put at risk to protect the citizens of this great town so if I could ask for all the family members to stand for a moment and be recognized for their tremendous for the tremendous sacrifice that they made for our town and now to go on with the ceremony I introduce Chief Lawson uh to go ahead and give out the certificates and tell us why they're being given out thank you thank you mayor mayor th this is uh by far one of my favorite duties as as Chief to uh recognize officers for um outstanding the things that they do in the line of duty they pretty much do it every day but these are over and above uh exceptional things that we want to have them publicly recognized for um when bad things happen in this town these are the people who run toward trouble not away from trouble and uh it's not an easy job being a police officer it's not an easy job being a police officer in Lakewood by any means you have to be sensitive to a lot of different uh uh communities cultures and practice officers just they do an outstanding job so let's get into it the first award I'd like officers Eric Mick badge number 307 and Nathan R Rees badge number [Applause] 299 this award is for uh exceptional service and the event occurred on February 8 2012 Poli officers responded to an armed robbery in progress a man had been robbed and guto of his wallet containing his money credit cards and his identification the description of the suspect was relay to the responding officers the offic officers undertook a search for the suspect and a matter of time located a mail matching the description that was given out of the suspect the suspect immediately became uncooperative and a foot pursuit ensued after a short scuffle the suspect was apprehended and a black semi-automatic lookalike handgun was recovered this suspect was responsible for a string of this type of armed robberies so by arresting this individual they did a great job in stopping this serial robber in Lakewood and we thank them [Applause] mom and dad you want to come up for the picture too yeah conratulations than you I should be able to talk okay I would like uh officer Joe sandstrom Badge number 324 officer Patrick Karns badge number 336 and officer Craig fin badge number 339 to [Applause] come this award is an honorable service award on April of this year these officers were dispatched to a missing endangered elderly female apparently she had left a Suicide Note 8 hours earlier at a healthc care facility and that had had not been seen since that time these officers developed and conducted a systematic search and recovered the female in the woods lying on the ground her body temperature had dropped down to 94° she was transport to Kimble Medical Center and I'm happy to say she made a full recovery thanks to these officers [Applause] congratulations Craig since you're ready here stay here this next award is for exceptional service on June 16th of this year officer think observed a vehicle in the area of the crossroad apartments and the vehicle was running upon conducting a surveillance of the vehicle and gathering information of the vehicle the registered owner he approached the vehicle and through his investigative efforts he affected an arrest Craig further the investigation through a search war and recovered 100 gram of marijuana a large amount of cash and forfeiture of the vehicle so an outstanding [Applause] job Craig Z work for the police department for uh a little over a year he was one of the officers we are fortunate enough to get through uh the rice list which is a list of officers that had been laid off from other town so we were very fortunate to bring C on board okay I'd like to call up officer sha Ward badge number 302 okay I just I was just told he's out of town away on vacation I just want to tell you a little bit about what he did foration on July 3rd of this year officer Ward responded to an area of Dr Martin Luther King Drive a report of a large disturbance well at the scene Alward heard a single gunshot he then identified a male who was known to be a a gun carrier he attempted to approach the male the male then threw something in a nearby garbage can and began walking away Ward apprehended a suspect and recovered a 38 caliber revolver Ward's actions led to the arrest of a major threat to our community did an outstanding [Applause] job okay I'd like to call up officers Sean do Doyle badge number 2 254 and EMS Robert Hades and Crystal V over from lak EMS [Applause] on October 10th of this year officers and EMS Personnel responded to a location on cedarbridge Avenue for an unresponsive male the male was not breathing officer Doyle Bobby Hadis and Crystal Vana silver immediately began CPR and compressions the male pulse came back he was transported to Kimble Medical Center and made a full recovery for the these prompt actions the three individuals saved this individual's life and we're presenting them with a life saving award great job Scott come on up Scott's the department head of VMS so it's appropriate for him to be up here for [Applause] okay this this award goes back a ways um however we we overlooked it and it was not recognized in the past but this goes back in a couple years officer Montgomery was work working an off-duty Road job in the area of Brook Road officer Montgomery was crossing a group of pedestrians attempting to get to from one side of the road to the other suddenly a vehicle appeared and it was traveling at a very high rate of speed officer Montgomery noticed that there was a pedestrian Crossing that was likely to be hit by a vehicle with no regard to his own life he flung himself into The Pedestrian and pulled him to safety thus sa potentially saving this individual's life and for this we are giving him a life saving [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yeah he been a while the following officers please come up Kevin sudath badge number 284 Ardo Vega badge number 311 officer Steven keski badge number 319 officer Lenny NE Jr badge number 322 and Chase Meer 332 these officers are getting an award we call the Top Gun award and it's for DWI arrest in Lakewood uh so potentially they are saving Our Lives the lives of our our children our parents anybody who drives in Lakewood and pedestrians by getting intoxicated drivers off the roads great job guys thank you [Applause] on guys get together all the we take a pict I doesn't matter at these award ceremonies we not only recognize officers and emergency responders but we also recognize civilians who have done something outstanding and we have a few of them I'd like uh Christine saragusa to come up Christine are you here I wasn't sure if she'd be able to attend tonight but let me tell you a little about what she did Christine was involved in the in the dedicated search for the elderly person um the same one we gave the awards to the officers she was right out there with the search teams and she was instrumental in locating that elderly female in that evening of September 2nd 2012 uh Douglas vogle Christine Lopez Mr vogle and Christian Lopez are being recognized for their prompt actions on December 3rd this month when they aided a two-month pregnant woman that was trapped in an overturned vehicle after she struck a utility pole in the area of Prospect Street [Applause] Doug smashed the window out of the vehicle and dragged out the female who was taken to the hospital for treatment so great job thank you very [Applause] much come David taplin you here no okay let me just tell you a little bit about what David taplan did um in lwood periodically um we have a rash of burglar and until we arrest the burglar they go on their spree um more or less terrorizing different areas in Lakewood and it's difficult to catch them to be honest because being in the right place at the right time the ra right amount of people it's difficult but we got a call one evening from David taplin he he lives up in Westgate that he had uh come out of his house to go to the airport I think it was about 4:30 in the morning and he found an individual rifling his vehicle so he confronted him not only did he confront him he followed that individual and dialed the police on his cell phone and we made the arrest and we cleared probably close to two dozen burglaries of cars and homes so he just an outstanding job and not too many people would do that and I don't really encourage people to follow follow criminals but he did an outstanding job so I want we wanted to thank you we have a a number of uh unit citations and and these will be the uh last Awards in the program um Ocean County K9 unit uh Unfortunately they are not here due to the passing of sheriff pimus they are intimately involved with his uh with his uh ceremony and the viewing that's taking place right now but they are always here for us whenever we have uh large events they come with their um canines and they do explosive bomb sweeps for us they also come we have suspicious packages uh for drug searches and they just do a fantastic job so we wanted to recognize them the next unit citation is for Lakewood EMS Scott and any EMS personel if you would come [Applause] up Scott cter uh director of Lakewood EMS the supervisor and his Personnel um work hand in hand with the police department they are out there every day responding to uh medical emergencies uh when our when our tactical te team deploys they're right there in case uh someone gets hurt and I don't know how many uh lives that they've touched and and potentially saved in Lakewood so we certainly would like to recognize them for all of their efforts and dedication to Lakewood Township thank [Applause] you next group we're honoring is Lakewood ham anybody from lakew [Music] Ham uran you in the audience L be he just a little shot I probably don't have to tell you about Lakewood Hava and the job that they do for Lakewood um a tremendous resource for the police department and we have emergencies where we lose power and we have lights out um Lake Witham is a is a partner and and they're C team members through OEM they they bring out they assist us when we have lost people they come out with volunteers when whatever the emergency is whether it's a snowstorm and and and pulling people out of the snow or giving people rides or people who run out of gas L withum is always there supporting the police department and it really is a pleasure to honor them I know we've done it before and in my opinion we can't do it enough for all the services that they perform for the C we also have where's Yakov susman come on up he's [Applause] also y also as a member of OEM is very instrumental in keeping people safe in this town because he rides around and reports street lights that are out so we can get him fixed and we know in this town that's a very serious problem so we'd like to recognize him and thank him for doing that [Applause] thank you guys the next group is the Lin civilian safety [Music] watch nobody from LCSW good they're out they're out protecting the town they're out patrolling let me just tell you a little bit about LCSW LCSW is is headed by uh its director shragi penter happens to be one of my neighbors and these these uh individuals go out routinely and ride around Lakewood and their mission is to be alert for suspicious activity and reported and by doing so they act as a force multiplier for the police department and through their observations and Reporting we've uh made some ke arrest U for burglar and people were doing criminal mischief and vandalism and and they do a terrific job also when we have large events they also assist the police department and AUM um controlling the event whether it be traffic control or or pedestrian control they just do a terrific job day and day out and that's why we're recognizing at LCSW so thank [Applause] you the final group I'd like to recognize is vicker Holm Rabbi [Applause] here again vicker Holm is a group I probably do not have to tell everybody about um when we have uh David taplin's here we'll get to you in a minute [Applause] when we have uh emergencies uh especially those of uh uh involving a power failure uh bicker Holm has a good supply of different medical devices they have hospital beds they have cots they have generators um and and they they just provide an amazing service to to people who have medical needs that are dependent on electrical devices they go into the uh the hospitals um we they're Al also a part of the office of emergency management and our our team certified and uh I can't thank Rabbi coner um enough for what bicker holem does every day in lak we so we thank you and [Applause] congratulations I already get my steal about LCSW and how great you were so uh I'm not going to do it again but everybody heard it and thank you for everything LCSW [Applause] would you come on now one more time uh Mr taplin was instrumental in that arrest of that seral burglar in Westgate who had devastated our community and through his efforts we were able to make the arrest and clear probably 20 to to 24 uh burglaries thank you d [Applause] you