Police Awards

The Police Department recognized some of its own for going above and beyond the call of duty in a ceremony on April 14, 2008.

*photo courtesy of the Evanston RoundTable

Detective Timothy Van Dyk and Officer Daniel Kooi received commendations, the highest honor of the evening. Both officers assisted in the safe apprehension of a suspect in a double shooting that led to a homicide in February 2007. Detective Van Dyk was in his personal vehicle on his way home from work at the time when Officer Kooi saw him and relayed the information to him.

Honorable mentions were presented to Officers Michael Endre and Aaron Wernick for apprehending a subject and handgun when the subject refused a traffic stop and fled on foot.

Officers Endre and Wernick, in addition to Officers Thomas Giese, Adam Nawotka, Kevin Campbell were recognized with honorable mentions after recovering a .357 revolver after a citizen complaint of a gun being pointed out of a car window. They located the vehicle, attempted a traffic stop, but the vehicle fled. They followed the suspect, observing a black object being thrown from the vehicle.

Officer Endre snatched a third honorable mention when he apprehended a suspect who confessed to multiple dumpster fires. Officer Andre was patrolling the area of a dumpster fire when he located a suspect matching the description.

Officer Fernando Gomez received two honorable mentions. For one, he found and rescued from the lake a missing autistic child. Several other police units responded and searched the immediate beach and lakefront area. Officer Gomez and his partner took the initiative to search a nearby Private Drive where the child was located.

Additionally, Officer Gomez along with Officer Thomas Curtin received honorable mentions for apprehending a suspect in a robbery. They located a person matching the description. The suspect threw an item of clothing into a nearby vehicle and stopped. The officers also snatched the driver of the awaiting vehicle!

Detectives Bonifacio Maldonado and Chukwuemeka Atum received honorable mentions for conducting a traffic stop on a vehicle with suspended license plates and finding 10 pounds of cannabis with a street value of $27,000!

Detective Joseph Bush received an honorable mention when he nabbed a juvenile matching the description in a robbery, even though the juvenile had on a different color shirt. The detective stopped the juvenile obtained the subject's residential address and got consent to search the juvenile's bedroom, finding proceeds of the robbery.

Detective Mark Dobrowolski received an honorable mention for helping to remove a violent offender from the streets. After a female was sexually assaulted, the detective actively canvassed the neighborhood, interviewed the victim and continued with follow-up interviews. He searched for new leads and exhausted existing leads. As DNA evidence was processed, a suspect was identified, and he located the suspect and brought them in for questioning. The suspect was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, unlawful restraint, residential burglary and home invasion!

Officer Thomas Koch received an honorable mention for chasing and apprehending a subject of an attempted burglary while he was interviewing a witness.

Officer Matthew George received an honorable mention for apprehending a subject while he was driving in his personal vehicle. Officer George heard the call of a burglary in progress and observed a known criminal fleeing that area. He contacted another officer notifying him that he had located the suspect then followed and apprehended the person.

Detectives Larry Miller and Gil Levy were recognized with honorable mentions. The two were in the area of a home invasion and unlawful use of a weapon call and observed a vehicle fleeing at a high rate of speed. They attempted a felony stop on the vehicle and an occupant fled. After a brief foot pursuit, the subject was apprehended. Two other subjects that were in the vehicle were also placed into custody. A fully loaded shotgun was recovered from the vehicle. All three subjects were charged with home invasion and one of the subjects was charged with unlawful use of a weapon.

Members of the Neighborhood Enforcement Team (NET) were recognized with an Honorable Mention Unit Citation: Commander James Hutton, Sergeant Jay Parrott, Detectives Chukwuemeka Atum, Joseph Bush, Ryan Glew, Gil Levy, Bonifacio Maldonado, Larry Miller, Anna Ostap, Melissa Sacluti, Vince Santillo, and Jody Wright

They partnered with the Chicago's narcotic and gang investigations section to combat an open-air drug market that was operating on the Chicago/Evanston border. This operation was called "Operation Triple Threat." A new faction of the Black P Stones Street Gang, known as the Insane Black Mafia, were responsible for selling crack cocaine in the targeted area of this operation. During this operation, a total of 23 successful undercover buys were made and 22 narcotics dealers and suppliers were identified.

Nineteen arrest warrants were issued for persons identified in the delivery of narcotics to the undercover officers. Seizure warrants for four vehicles were also issued. Ten out of the 19 named suspects were arrested, a substantial quantity of a controlled substance was seized, as well as, several thousand dollars in cash.