Police present annual awards
The Homewood Police Department gathered on Thursday, March 14 to recognize staff who served in outstanding ways in 2018, as part of its annual awards ceremony.
Chief Tim Ross said the awards honor the "great work every day, every night, 24/7" by Homewood officers, and the ceremony is one of the best parts of his job.
As part of the ceremony, Jonathon Whisenhunt was sworn into his new position as corporal. Ross said fellow officer Jeremy Baswell had also been promoted to corporal but was unable to attend.
The Unit of the Year was the night shift patrol, which Ross and Sgt. Ben Sutton described as the most productive shift on the force in terms of arrests, traffic stops and confiscation of drugs and illegal weapons.
Night shift officers went on to receive many other awards on March 14, including Sgt. Christopher Morgan, the night shift supervisor, being named Police Officer of the Year.
Sutton said night shift officers had over 1,000 arrests and 2,000 citations in 2018, and Morgan is the type of supervisor who leads "from the front." Morgan said he was accepting the award on behalf of his officers.
"You guys make my job easy," he said.
Other awards included:
- Chief's Award — Sgt. John Carr
- Civilian Employee of the Year — Dispatcher Sonja Sparks
- Lifesaving Award — Officer Kenneth Blackmon
- Award of Merit — Officers Victor Sims and Trent Ricketts
- Distinguished Service Award —Cpl. Eric Price, Cpl. Jonathon Whisenhunt and Officer Nathan Bullard
- Exemplary Service Award — Sgt. Michael Godwin, Sgt. Cameron Beedle, Officer Matthew Green, Officer Phillip Simon and Officer Nick Altobella
- National Defense Award (for military service) — Officers Kenneth Jones and Eric Brugge. Since Brugge is on active deployment, his son Ford accepted the award on his behalf.