Caroline Sheriff’s Office honors employees

Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2014 at 3:12 pm

By Daniel Sherrier

Editor

 

The Community Services Center was the safest place to be Wednesday night, when the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office conducted its annual awards ceremony.

Deputies, civilian employees, families, and other supporters gathered in the auditorium to celebrate the accomplishments of their colleagues and loved ones. Numerous employees were recognized in more than a dozen award categories for good conduct, safe driving, physical fitness, and other attributes noting overall excellence.

Sgt. Chris Hall was named Deputy of the Year for 2014; Deputy Ellard Jones, Court Services Deputy of the Year; Robin Taylor, Dispatcher of the Year; Courtney Taylor, Civilian Employee of the Year; and Deputy James Hall, Rookie of the Year.

Lt. Travis Nutter announced the awards. He said that the awards committee “voted unanimously that (Sgt. Hall) was the proper choice” for Deputy of the Year.

Sgt. Hall began his career as a dispatcher before becoming a deputy. He has served as a school resource officer, investigator, DARE instructor, and a crime prevention specialist. He was recently promoted to the rank of sergeant, and he is pursuing national certification as a crime prevention specialist—a certification only 80 people have attained in the United States, according to Nutter.

The Court Services Deputy of the Year is “is always on the go. He has driven several hundred miles transporting prisoners for court cases. He has also been called in the middle of the night without notice to assist in transporting juveniles to Merrimack or a TDO (temporary detention order) to Western State Hospital when manpower is short,” Nutter said of Jones.

Dispatcher Robin Taylor “has great dedication to her job and the citizens of Caroline County,” Nutter said. “She regularly works overtime when needed, no questions asked, and on the radio, she is clear, concise, and always seems to be in control of the situation at hand.”

Courtney Taylor, the Civilian Employee of the Year, “is a very efficient person and is always willing to help anyone with anything. She always has a smile on her face and always reflects a positive image to citizens as they walk into the door at the Sheriff’s Office,” Nutter said.

Nutter said that Deputy Hall’s career “started off on the right foot,” and he “has continued to grow as a law enforcement officer and reflects the CCSO as being community-committed and service-oriented.”

The awards committee, consisting of Major Scott Moser, Lt. Karl Eichenmiller, Lt. Stacy Cary, and civilian volunteers Andy Farmer and Mark Farrar, selected all but one of the award recipients. The Sheriff’s Award, as the name implies, was chosen directly by Sheriff Tony Lippa, and that recognition went to Animal Control Sgt. Julie Heffler.

Heffler is “rock-solid” and has a “can-do type attitude,” Lippa said, and she “will do whatever you want (her) to do for the citizens of Caroline County and for the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office, and … in such a great manner.”

Del. Buddy Fowler, who represents part of Caroline County in the Virginia House of Delegates, was the keynote speaker at the ceremony.

Fowler discussed how the national media has been critical of law enforcement lately. “Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of national reporting is one-sided on the facts, when they take the time to report the facts. I’m also extremely disappointed when I see elected officials throwing law enforcement under the bus in order to advance a political agenda,” he said.

“But think about this idea for a moment—what would all our lives be like if it were not for police and sheriff’s departments?” Fowler said, as he proceeded to cite several examples of police officers saving lives across the country, including a Florida woman who was being strangled by her seatbelt until quick action by a state trooper saved her life, and a teenage boy who was severely injured in a car accident and bleeding out until an Oklahoma police officer fashioned a tourniquet from a utility strap in his cruiser.

“These types of stories are countless, daily occurrences across our nation, and more often than not, the police officers and deputies responsible for these heroic acts humbly return home to their family, largely in anonymity, with only the sense of fulfilling their duty to protect and serve and satisfaction of a job well done,” Fowler said.

“That is why this ceremony of recognition is so important. It reminds the citizens of Caroline County of the protection and public service this sheriff’s department provides, sometimes at a very high personal cost,” he continued.

Lippa said he was once asked to comment about law enforcement situations currently happening elsewhere in the nation, and he had responded, “That’s not Caroline County. I don’t know what happened in the jurisdictions that you’re talking about. I don’t have all the reports that are there. But I can tell you in Caroline County, that’s not how we do business. We are community committed, service-oriented to all of our people.”

The final recognition of the night, developed by the awards committee as a surprise, went to Lippa.

Sen. Mark Warner arranged for a United States flag to be flown over the nation’s Capitol in honor of Lippa’s 38 years of law enforcement service to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Sheriff’s Office’s Honor Guard then folded that flag into a case, which was presented to Lippa Wednesday night.

“Throughout the whole awards ceremony, it’s all been about the department. Well, the department has a leader, and it is our sheriff,” Moser said.

 

Copyright 2015 Lakeway Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without written permission.
© Lakeway Publishers, Inc. Privacy Policy