Employee Recognition

Chief's Commendation Award

Spring 2009: Sergeant Mike Santos and Corporal Eric Wong
Awarded the Chief's Commendation Award for their outstanding investigative service during an extremely demanding time. They did above and beyond work with a short staff.

Employee of the Semester

Spring 2009: Daveion Harris
In the short time that Daveion has worked for Parking Services, he has found and booted 6 vehicles with outstanding citations in just a 2 week period, and he recovered thousands of dollars in parking fines. In addition, he found forged day permits. In the period January to April, Daveion has issued more than 1,200 citations - outperforming all other enforcement officers in the Parking Enforcement Unit.

In November, 2008 while on foot patrol, he observed a robbery victim chasing a suspect from the ATM area. Daveion alerted Dispatch with a clear description and updated the location and direction the suspect traveled. Thanks to his efforts, the suspect was arrested. In his short tenure here, Daveion has made a positive impact on the whole UPD.

Moment of Magic Award

Spring 2009: Liza Rios
Liza is a viable nominee for the Moment of Magic Award because of her willingness to step up and help out with UPD projects wherever and whenever needed. For last year's Holiday Toy Drive, there was a big hole in our committee structure. We needed someone to take on the family registrations. This sounds simplistic, but it is extremely complicated and time consuming.

She has worked with Parking Services, who collected the applications at the service window and the counseling staff of Lowell Elementary School to put together a viable list, so when Jenny Pak and Manuel Aguayo performed the knock and notice - the houses that are scheduled to be delivered toys and food are actually the right families. She has worked with Letty Coronado to make sure that the people on the pickup list get the right reference information such as children's ages and if they are boys or girls. Thank you Liza!

Moment of Magic Award

Spring 2009: Tim Villarica
Tim was commended in writing by the Vice President of Recovery Services of Absolute Software. Here are comments from his letter:

"I am writing to thank you for the prompt and efficient service we recently received from your Department. As a retired Police Officer, I know that the quality and timeliness of leads regarding crimes committed can make all the difference in an investigation. Our company is the developer of Computrace Lojack for Laptops - a computer theft recovery software. A computer belonging to one of our customers was stolen in San José, CA. On June 17, 2008, it contacted our monitoring center over the internet. Our software identified an IP address and user in San José. Officer Tim Villarica successfully concluded the case when he recovered the computer on September 1, 2008. My compliments to Officer Villarica, whose diligence and investigative skills helped put a dent in property crime."

Congratulations on your commendation!