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REPORT RAPPORT |
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DATE: |
17 July 2009 |
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TO: |
Executive Director, Ottawa Police Services Board |
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FROM: |
Chief of Police, Ottawa Police Service |
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SUBJECT: |
LETTERS
OF COMMENDATION |
RECOMMENDATION
That the Ottawa
Police Services Board receive this report for information.
BACKGROUND
Attached for the information of the Board are excerpts from letters of appreciation / thanks received from the public, since the last regular meeting, for services rendered by members of the Ottawa Police Service.
(original
signed by)
Vern White,
Chief of Police
Attach. (1)
LETTERS
OF COMMENDATION
Date Received: 10 April 2009
From: Member of Public
OPS Members: Members of the Ottawa Police Service
Excerpts from
Email: I was stopped twice at
your RIDE Program and in both instances the officers first addressed me in
English and once I responded in French they continued speaking with me in
French. I wish to thank the OPS for
being on the right path.
Date
Received: 18 May 2009
From: Member
of the Public
OPS Members: Staff
Sergeant John Medeiros, Constable Andrea Girimonte and Zoye Coburn
Excerpts from
Letter: I am writing to thank
you and the Ottawa Police Service for organizing and hosting the Vietnamese
Heritage and Freedom Flag in celebration of the Vietnamese Culture Week and the
Asian Heritage Month on May 4, 2009. We
appreciate your kind gesture and the support that Staff Sergeant John Medeiros,
Zoye Coburn and Constable Andrea Girimonte have devoted to the organization of
this event. We were also very pleased
to have the opportunity to participate in the Recruit Orientation Program on 27
April 2009.
Date
Received: 01 June 2009
From: Member
of the Public
OPS Member: Sergeant
Kim Cooper
Excerpts from
Email: I am writing to express
my sincere appreciation of the tremendous help from Sgt. Cooper. More than a month ago I received an urgent
call from a friend in the United States.
He has a friend in China that needed desperate help to find his missing
daughter in Canada. This person in
China does not speak English and has no one to contact for help in Canada. He had lost contact with his daughter for a
month and his daughter’s bank reported activities by other people and credit
card being used for big purchases.
After I got the call, I went to the Police Station on Greenbank road to
report the case. Sgt. Cooper was on
duty and she was very patient and thorough in explaining what I should do and
what information would be needed. Sgt.
Cooper established the case on the spot and started the complex process of
trying to locate her in Ottawa (her last reported address), and tracing all the
information that led to her to a different address in Toronto. I could only imagine the complexity of work
and coordination of tasks involved.
Throughout the process, she tried to keep me informed of the progress so
I could report to the girl’s family in China.
Thanks to her hard work, the person was found and the family is
reconnected. I’m very much impressed
with the professionalism, the compassion, the dedication and the efficiency of
Sgt. Cooper. I have never been involved
with the police before. I always have a
high respect for the police officers.
Now my appreciation of the service of your officers has been elevated to
a totally new level.
Date Received: 02 June 2009
From: Member of the Public
OPS Member: Constable David Zackarias
Excerpts from Letter: I recently met with Cst. Zackrias in the midst of the Tamil protests in Ottawa. Cst. Zackrias contacted me through one of my friends to seek assistance in facilitating discussions between the protestors and the Ottawa Police Service. Cst. Zackrias and I sat down with some of the protestors and were able to open the lines of communication. Cst. Zackrias represents the finest that you have to offer, and I sincerely hope that he is given the recognition he deserves.
Date
Received: 03 June 2009
From: Member
of the Public
OPS Members: OPS
Members
Excerpts from
Letter: Your staff
responded to an assault, pursued a vehicle that ended up in my driveway and
totalled my vehicle. I awakened feet
from the occurrence, peeked through my blind to hear your staff utter “don’t
move”. Thought I was being busted. What a rude awakening to a bomb like sound. As soon as I peered through the blind once
more, I felt so reassured that everything was under control by your very well
trained staff. After assessing the
situation, your well trained staff moved in immediately, secured the site in
complete darkness and proceeded with great efficiency and professional calmness
to arrest the culprit and were very compassionate and caring towards myself,
the current resident. I wish to convey
my compliments to you and your staff for a great job well done, although, too
often it goes by totally unappreciated and unrecognized by the general
public. But we do appreciate you all
very much. Thank you all.
Date Received: 04 June 2009
From: Member of the Public
OPS Member: Constable Matthew Caldwell
Excerpts from Email: Yesterday we had to call for assistance to handle a deer that had gotten caught in our fence at home. Constable Caldwell arrived approximately 10 minutes after the call and proceeded to handle the situation, cooperating with the Humane Society representative. My wife and I were extremely impressed with the professionalism Constable Caldwell exhibited and his compassion for the badly injured deer. His attention to the safety of us and our neighbours and his skill at putting everyone at ease was amazing. As you can imagine this was a very uncomfortable situation for us. We are ardent supporters of the Ottawa Police and our experience yesterday only enhances our deep respect and admiration for the officers.
Date Received: 05 June 2009
From: Bill Stephens, Deputy Director, Senior and
Special Courses
OPS Members: Ms.
Joyce Jones, Sergeant Besner, Staff Sergeant Lynne Turnbull, Mr. Joe
Berardelli, Mr. Andrew Clark, Ms. Carole Dube, Ms. Ginette Massicotte, Ms.
Beverly Mulligan, Mr. Malcolm Tardieu, Ms. Renee Viel, Ms. Onalee Wyman and
Inspector Gary Meehan
Excerpts from
Letter: The Ontario Police
College promotional examinations were held on 29 March 2009 at 16 locations
across the province. A total of 1348
members from 63 police services participated.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to
you and your police service for hosting the examinations. Ottawa hosted the largest number of
candidates (199) across all sites. We
are very appreciative of the collaborate efforts of the above mentioned members
for coordinating the exam site and ensuring that Confederation High school was
set up and organized to meet the required criteria. Collectively, everyone’s display of commitment and
professionalism contributed to yet another successful exam administration.
Date Received: 08 June 2009
From: Member of the Public
OPS Member: Constable Theresa Kelm
Excerpts from Letter:
I am taking this
opportunity to write to you to say a “Big” thank you to Cst. Kelm for all she
has done for my granddaughters, my son and myself, the grandfather during a
difficult time in our lives which we were not prepared for. Cst. Kelm sure is professional in her field
and is an asset to your police force.
In our difficult times, Cst. Kelm has given us her support, her compassion,
kindness and was very helpful, which enabled us to deal with this very
difficult ordeal that the family was going through. I can honestly tell you that Cst. Kelm went above and beyond her
call of duty in fulfilling her duties.
Cst. Kelm is a great human being that truly merits our sincere thank
you.
Date Received: 09 June 2009
From: Chief
Superintendent Kate Lines, Ontario Provincial Police
OPS Member: Constable Maureen Bryden
Excerpts from
Email: On behalf of my Co-Chair
Tom Pownall, myself and all members of the CACP Electronic Crime Committee, I
want to thank you for having Maureen join us and present at our recent meeting
held in Toronto. Her overview of your
agency’s High Tech Crime and Internet Child Exploitation Section, as well as
her work with Ontario’s Provincial Strategy on Child Internet Pornography was
very informative. Her passion for her
work was self-evident and it is important for our committee to understand the
successes and issues faced by front line officers involved in this type of
work. The side bar discussions on police position tenure and psychological well
being for those working in this area were also very enlightening. I wish her all the best as she is a fine
representative of your agency and women in policing.
Date Received: 09 June 2009
From: Member
of the Public
OPS Member: Sergeant James Devine
Excerpts from
Letter: I have wanted to write you this letter for some time now to
let you know of an experience I had with one of your detectives regarding a
sexual assault against me as a young girl.
I was terrified to go to the police but knew it was necessary for me to
do all I could do to expose this person.
Sgt. James Devine conducted the interview and I was very nervous. I had seen two young women interviewed on
television about a month prior and the way the interview was conducted caused me
great concern and increased my nervousness.
Sgt. Devine was professional, and at the same time so
understanding. He was very clear on
several occasions as to what the outcome could possibly be. He made sure that I was going into this
process with my eyes wide open. Without
his perseverance and calming demeanour this would have been a much more
difficult process. I am so grateful for
the opportunity to have my case heard and without Sgt. Devine I do not believe
this would have been possible.
From: Member of the Public
OPS Members: Constable Sheldon Baptiste, Constable Lila Shibley and
Sergeant Rohan Beebakhee
Excerpts from Letter:
I am writing on
behalf of my brother and myself with regard to our recent experience with the
Ottawa Police Service. On Wednesday 20
May 2009, my brother and I discovered that our sister had died in her
apartment. Emergency services were
called but we dealt primarily with the police.
It goes without saying that this experience was very stressful and
difficult in so many ways, however, the police personnel that were at the scene
were amazing. We are so grateful for
the kindness and sensitivity that was displayed by all of your officers. This was an impossible situation yet these
officers made it bearable. We realize
that with each call these officers never know what they might be facing and it
is astounding to us that they can deal so well with so much. We wish to convey our profound gratitude for
a job exceedingly well done.
Date Received: 12 June 2009
From: Gordon
Kerluke, Director & Secretary, and Cumberland Lions Club
OPS Members: Sergeant Dan Berrea, Sergeant Jamie Soltendieck,
Constable Leo Benvenuti and Constable Stephane Richard
Excerpts from
Letter: On behalf of the Cumberland Lions Club and the Cumberland
Heritage Village Museum, I would like to extend special thanks to the above
members of the Ottawa Police Canine Section for the demonstrations put on for
us at the Festival. The demonstrations
were enjoyed a great deal by the spectators and several of the people asked
that we try to arrange a repeat of the performance next year.
Date Received: 17 June 2009
From: Lindsay
Kovacs, Fundraising Coordinator, Canadian Cancer Society
OPS Members: Inspector
Joan McKenna and Acting Superintendent Ed Keeley
Excerpts from
Letter: Congratulations to all on a phenomenal job this past
weekend! All of the sweat and tears
that went into putting on the Nepean Relay for Life were very fruitful – our
current revenue is sitting at $587,037 and we are still receiving
donations. These fantastic results are
due to the work, inspiration, perspiration and determination of all the
volunteers and staff that did an outstanding job of stewarding, encouraging and
motivating their committees and teams this year. Congrats again!
Date Received: 24 June 2009
From: Member of the Public
OPS Member: Constable Abdul Kadir Abdi
Excerpts from
Email: On 21 June 2009 I
brought my 2 years old son to the Touch the Truck event at Lincoln Fields. Once he saw the police car, he had to go see
it. I was surprised there was a line up
for almost 25 minutes and once my son got his turn, he became shy and did not
want to get in the car. That was until
Constable Abdi spoke to him. I then
understood why the line was so long. Cst.
Abdi was taking time with each and every child that sat in the cruiser. He was letting them type on his computer,
showing all the different siren buttons and got my son to push them and make
them go off. When it was time to get
out, Cst. Abdi gave my son a high five, smiled at him and gave him a little rub
on tattoo. This little visit made my
son’s day. He was so excited to have
the chance to play in the car that he was talking about it the whole way
home. I want to thank Cst. Abdi for his
cheerful, playful attitude towards all the kids that sat in his car that
day. I hope that more children will
grow up to respect our law enforcement officers for what they do on a daily
basis for us.
Date Received: 24 June 2009
From: Member of the Public
OPS Member: Sergeant Jean Lamothe
Excerpts from
Letter: I would like to congratulate Sgt. Lamothe for his precious
contribution to the safety and success of St. Anthony’s Day. Our community is very proud of him as well
as all your brave officers.