Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Westchester Insider: Westchester County Police Desk: WCPD Holds Annual Awards Ceremony and Memorial Service During National Police Week.

 


COUNTY POLICE HOLD ANNUAL MEMORIAL SERVICE AND AWARD CEREMONY.

More than 50 officers honored for Bravery, Investigative Skill and Lifesaving.

 

(White Plains, NY) -- The Westchester County Department of Public Safety held its annual memorial service and awards ceremony at the County Center today, paying tribute to the 18 Westchester County officers who lost their lives in the line of duty and honoring more than 50 officers for acts of bravery, investigative skill and lifesaving that occurred in the previous year.

 

The annual ceremony, which coincides with National Police Week, opened with the reading of the names of 18 fallen heroes who served in the Westchester County Police and its predecessor agencies, the Westchester County Parkway Police and the Westchester County Sheriff’s Department.

 

County Executive George Latimer congratulated the award winners and thanked them for the professionalism and skill they bring to their work each day.

 

“What you do is not just a job, not just a career, but a calling,” Latimer told the assembled officers and their family members. “You are willing to put yourselves in harm’s way and do things that most of us are not trained to do, and not willing to do, quite honestly. On behalf of the people of Westchester, I thank you.”

 

Commissioner Terrance Raynor, Chief of Department James Luciano and Deputy County Executive Kenneth Jenkins presented the following awards:

 

Patrol Services Division:

 

The Meritorious Service Medal was awarded to Sgt. Niall Nerney for actions taken at great personal risk in rescuing a man from a burning car on Dec. 1, 2023. The motorist had fled from an attempted traffic stop following a hit-and-run accident and then crashed and rolled the car over on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Chappaqua. Sgt. Nerney knocked down some of the fire with a portable extinguisher, pulled the shattered windshield away with his bare hands, and climbed inside the car to remove the injured suspect as the fire grew once again.

 

The Commendable Duty Medal was awarded to Police Officers Baldwin Firpo and Walter Hickey for their apprehension on March 1, 2023, of a suspect who had just committed an armed robbery in North Castle and was wanted in connection with other armed robberies in Westchester and Putnam counties. The suspect led officers on a chase and then fought with them before he was taken into custody.

 

The Lifesaving Medal was awarded to Sgt. Joaquin Brito and Police Officers Cristal Alcantara, Conrado Builes, Thomas Conway, Christopher Hearle, Erika Holze and Josesph Kraus for their actions at a serious accident on the Saw Mill River Parkway on Sept. 6, 2023. The officers performed a challenging extrication of three critically injured persons from a badly damaged vehicle and provided lifesaving emergency medical care prior to their transport to the hospital.

 

The Lifesaving Medal was awarded to Police Officer Nicholas Mirko who performed CPR and provided other care on April 6, 2023, to revive a man in Mount Kisco who had suffered a heart attack.

 

The Lifesaving Medal was awarded to Police Officers Antonio Flores and Raimond Restbergs for utilizing crisis intervention training, compassion and skill in calming a suicidal man on Feb. 3, 2023. The officers had located the man standing on the outside ledge of a railroad bridge in Mount Kisco. He was crying and saying he deserved to die. The officers calmed the man, won his trust and eventually helped him climb back over the railing to safety.

 

Detective Division

 

The Commendable Duty Medal was awarded to members of the Narcotics Unit and the Emergency Service Unit for their assistance to the Peekskill Police Department on Oct. 4, 2023, in surveilling and apprehending a violent, armed felon who was a suspect in a gunpoint robbery and shooting earlier in the day. Receiving the award were Lts. Jeffrey Slotoroff and Michael Demaio; Detectives Jonathan Irwin, Erin Moore, and Stephan Goggin; and Police Officers Paul DeSousa, David Byrnes and Tariq Hylton.

 

The Commendable Duty Medal was awarded to Detectives Amy Sullivan and Jennifer Vize of the General Investigations Unit for their skillful and compassionate investigation into the long-term sexual abuse of two girls in Westchester. The detectives conducted extensive interviews and participated in several controlled phone calls where the abuser made admissions of guilt, leading to his indictment, arrest and conviction.

 

A Unit Citation was awarded to the nine-member Warrant-Fugitive Unit for an exemplary body of work in 2023. The Unit made 236 arrests of suspects wanted on warrants, including for Murder 2nd Degree, Attempted Murder, Assault 1st Degree and various sex crimes, robbery and weapons charges. The Unit executed warrants in virtually every municipality in Westchester, in New York City and in the metropolitan area. Detectives also traveled to multiple states to return suspects to Westchester to face justice.

 

Special Operations Division

 

The Commendable Duty Medal was awarded to members of the Hostage Negotiation Team and the Special Response Team for their actions on April 23, 2023, in diffusing a four-hour standoff with an armed, suicidal man in Yorktown who was threatening to kill police officers and then himself. Through their tactical and skillful approach, the following officers brought he matter to a successful conclusion without any use of force: Lts. Michael Demaio and Jeffrey Slotoroff; Sgts. Daniel Dumser, Isai Moreira, Rachel Santiago and Joseph Spinelli; Detectives Robert Barber and Marc Moskalik; and Police Officers David Byrnes, Thomas Conway, Vincent Finnegan, Thomas Hagan, Christpher Hearle, Michael Huffman, Brian Pavletich, Eric Peterman and Sarina Taverner.

 

The Commendable Duty Medal was awarded to Sgt. Timothy Hicks of the Canine Unit and Police Officers David Byrnes and Tyler Hinkley of the Emergency Service Unit for their successful canine track and apprehension of two suspects who committed an armed robbery in Mount Vernon on Feb. 28, 2023.

 

The Commendable Duty Medal was awarded to four ESU members -- POs Tyler Hinkley, David Byrnes, Joseph Kraus and Raymond Basli – for working in tandem on July 29, 2023, to secure an emotionally distraught woman and prevent her from jumping from an overpass above Interstate 287.

 

The Commendable Duty Medal was awarded to members of the Hazardous Devices Unit for their work in securing and safely removing an unstable hand grenade from a garage in White Plains on May 22, 2023. Awarded were Sgt. Edward Devlin; Detectives Thomas Barker, Jonathan Gould, Nicholas Piqueras and David Lincoln; and Police Officer Tyler Hinkley.

 

A Lifesaving Medal was awarded to Sgt. Isai Moreira and Police Officers Baldwin Firpo, Matthew Moskalik and Vincent Finnegan for the prompt and precise lifesaving medical care they provided to a motorist who suffered significant blood loss and a spinal injury in an accident on the Saw Mill River Parkway on Sept. 2, 2023.

 

A Unit Citation was awarded to the 17-member Emergency Service Unit for its outstanding work handling more than 900 calls for service in 2023, including calls for persons in emotional crisis, accidents requiring extrications of seriously injured persons, barricaded subjects, persons trapped in floodwaters, and incidents requiring technical rescue techniques.

 

A Unit Citation was also awarded to the sworn and civilian staff of the Pistol Licensing Unit for handing a workload of cases and investigations that grew exponentially following changes to the laws that regulate firearms in New York. These changes led to a surge in new applications and amended applications in both 2022 and 2023 and required thousands of hours of additional investigation.

 

The 18 fallen officers whose memories and sacrifice were honored at the ceremony are: Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith, 1792; Police Officer Raymond Tehan, 1925; Special Police Officer John Patrick Murphy, 1928; Police Officer George Segnit, 1929; Police Officer Clifton Cypher, 1930; Police Officer Michael Erdley, 1933; Police Officer Manuel Borgos, 1938; Police Officer Reuben Conklin, 1946; Police Officer Carlos Bishop, 1946; Police Officer John Chabala, 1948; Police Officer George Ruthven, 1954; Police Officer Francis Bradley, 1960; Police Officer James Groark, 1966; Deputy Sheriff William Fitzgerald, 1968; Police Officer John Gonda, 1969; Deputy Sheriff Kieran Grant, 1979; Police Officer Gary Stymiloski, 1985; Sgt. Charles Rice Jr., 2009.

 

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