Jeremy Brown, Centerville City Police Department

The following nomination letter was written by Paul Child, Chief of Police of Centerville City:

Officer Jeremy Brown is an exceptional person and a dedicated officer who makes a profound difference in our community. Officer Brown is currently serving as a D.A.R.E officer to four elementary schools and the resource officer for Centerville Junior High. He works under the direction of the Detective Division, as such has been trained for crime scene investigation and he assists with cases as he is available.

Jeremy has also been given many additional assignments due to his wide range of talent and abilities. Because of his computer knowledge he has been tapped to assist with I.T. issues. He is the liaison between the Police Department and the July 4th Celebration Committee, as such he planned for all police resource deployments during the last two years. Jeremy has also taken on many different odd jobs like keeping up on our facebook page posts, gathering traffic related data, placement of the RADAR trailer around the city and other duties. I constantly hear praise from members of the public and from my own staff regarding Jeremy and his work.

Officer Brown is exceptional at observing how things are being done and coming up with better ways to do it. For example when he took on the RADAR trailer assignment he created it’s own email address and then placed a message on the trailer advising the community how to request it. In Jeremy’s office he maintains a list of all the tasks he has to complete with the time requested for completion and current status. I have heard from people that Jeremy always treats them good, makes sure that he follows up with them as needed, and has a great sense of humor.

Jeremy has taken his assignment with the schools very seriously and I have been completely amazed at his work product. For example, during each school year at each of the many classes he teaches at the four elementary schools he puts together many activities and takes pictures of the kids. He then takes these pictures and puts together a very entertaining and wonderful presentation for each class which he gives at the D.A.R.E. graduation. I have sat in on his lessons and notice how the kids love him and observed how amazing he is with the kids.

After this years 4th of July celebration I was visited by the chairman of the committee who praised Jeremy up and down; I have heard the same type of praise from each of the schools that Jeremy works in.

Officer Brown spends countless hours of his own time preparing lessons for school. He is always willing to come out and help on situations during his time off and has been called out from home many times in the last several months. I have to watch that Officer Brown is not using his own equipment and money too much in the performance of his job.
How has this officer gone above and beyond his/her duty?

Officer Brown developed a very good presentation for all of the teachers and staff at the five schools he is responsible for. This was done without any direction or request by me or anyone else, he did it because he wanted to and he cares.

The presentation was made to instruct school staff how to prepare for and properly defend against a violent attack at the school. I have received many compliments and positive comments from Principals, Assistant Principals, teachers and staff at all of the schools regarding this presentation.
In addition to this presentation Jeremy has assisted in the development of incident action plans for each of the schools in Centerville should there be a serious violent attack. Each year Officer Brown sets up training for all of the department officers at the various schools using these plans. Officers are brought into each of the schools and given a chance to re-acquaint themselves with the lay-out, he tells them how they can get access to all the rooms and roof of each school. We then go over the incident action plans for that school and talk about them and update them.
Within about a week of giving the presentations to the school staff Officer Brown sets up a lock-down drill. During this drill he brings in all of the available officers and administration from the police department and he sets up an incident command post. A briefing is given to all of the officers and they are given assignments. Upon the lock-down being activated the officers then go out in teams checking to make sure that each teacher has followed the plan. After the drill we then do a De-brief to see what can be done better.

Jeremy was assigned a vehicle as that had some markings of being a D.A.R.E Officer Vehicle but it was sort of lame. Jeremy went to work finding businesses who were willing to donate money and tires turning the mundane D.A.R.E. vehicle into one that is very unique and identifiable.
The work that Officer Brown has put into making our schools safer is remarkable and I believe well above and beyond what is expected or common. In every task I have assigned Officer Brown he has never let me down, quite the opposite, he always amazes me at how well the job was done.