 And then we have Lieutenant Cleary, Lieutenant Engelbert, Lieutenant Timmerman, and Lieutenant Curtis. And again, my apologies. We welcome you and thank you for coming to this presentation today. Next real quick we're going to introduce our Catboard members. Catboard members, if you can just wave for me. I have Alicia Lucero. She's right up here at front. She's the one that, she's the glue behind this board, right? I have Beth Brody, my co-president here. Keith Sessney, Linda Ferry, Linda Tafoya. Division Chief Kyle is also on our board and Rob Collins will be here shortly. Thank you all for coming and thank you for being here today because I know everyone is incredibly busy. To give you a little background about Citizens Appreciate Police, also known as CAP, we honor officers of the Denver Police Department who serve the community above and beyond the call of duty. Formed in 1978 by Mayor Bill McNichols and District Attorney Dale Tully, CAP is a nonprofit organization whose intention is to promote awareness within the community of the dedication displayed regularly by members of the Denver Police Department. The mission of the CAP board is to seek out and publicly acknowledge these deserving officers. The CAP award consists of a plaque and a pin. This pin is the only civilian awarded pin allowed to be worn on a Denver Police Officer's uniform. Presentations of these awards take place four times a year and to date more than 530 members of the Denver Police Department have received a CAP award. Hope as we honor our award recipients today, we also indirectly honor the numerous untold stories of our Denver Police Officers who serve our community above and beyond the call of duty daily. All right, our first presenter that's going to come up is Mark Poulter. Thank you. Oh, good morning. If at this time we could ask Officer Jonathan Hayes, Cassandra Ulrich, Aizel Husto Santiago, Emma Scherhardt, and Jose Marenquez to come up. Okay, Jose is not here either, huh? So this is an award actually going to seven individuals, the four that are standing before you, and Officer Matthew Prell, who could not be here, and Officer Kristen Miller, and Officer Jose Marenquez. I'm going to tell you a little story here. First of all, my quick background to tell this story is I was the director of your Colorado organized crime strike force, 35 year prosecutor. Michael Neal is the only one old enough to remember to strike force. In my 35 years as a prosecutor, I ran various specialized units, the West Metro Drug Task Force and a number of others. And one of the things you always did in these units, and my involvement of course was as a hobby cop, but what they really do in these units, you always had these operations going on. And we always named these operations some cute little thing that we could all remember, and some we couldn't talk about in a grand jury and the like. But I want to talk to you about an operation today that I refer to as operation toys for 10. On Christmas Eve 2022, while working the telephone report unit, Officer Jonathan Hayes took a stolen vehicle report from a 65 year old grandfather of 10 grandchildren. The grandfather was the guardian and sole provider for these grandchildren. The grandfather reported that he started his car and ran back to check the front door to his home when an unknown suspect took off in his car which contained all of the Christmas presents intended for the grandchildren. Officer Hayes learned that the grandfather had no resources to replace the gifts and began looking for assistance for this family. Now we've all seen movies and television shows portraying law enforcement preparing for drug raids or hostage rescue. We've seen briefing rooms where it's decided what weapons to use, what approach to making a like. With this case, Officer Hayes began to develop the strategy, the tactical strategy to help this family. He contacted Officer Marenquez who reached out to command staff, I believe division chief Sanchez, to get approval to help this family and to help it by a tactical approach. The first approach was to get funds to help this family and this was done by calling on the generosity of other Denver police officers. Once the financial tactical approach was successful through the generosity of the officers being recognized today and others, they raised $500. Using the $500 collected, Officer Hayes called upon officers Ulrich, Miller, Prell, Husto San Diego and Shearhart to determine what gifts to seek. Now I'm sure this tactical team determined information based on each child and decided what each child would be able to receive a gift with the money available. The next tactical step was to go to Target to buy gifts. I can just imagine the customers in Target on that Christmas Eve when a number of police came in and began to look around, spread out and started their search to please the 10 children they'd never met. No drugs were seized, no hostages rescued, no arrests made. Instead, gifts were obtained and delivered. I'm sure this tactical operation brought many multiple smiles. The individual involved here, the grandfather, was not able to join us today, but he did send a note. And it said they came through for me. They were stand-up officers for me when my car was stolen. All my gifts were my grandchildren were in there. I'm not sure how to describe the officers, but they were brilliant. I wasn't expecting them to do that. I really respect them for what they did because they didn't have to, they didn't have to do it at all. Later that same evening they called me and asked if it was okay to come to my house and I said yes, and they showed up with the gifts. It was making deficit. We have a great Christmas due to the Denver Police Department. It is an honor to present the cap award to these officers and to thank them for their effort to going beyond standard police work to provide a happy Christmas for 10 grandchildren. Good title. Would any of you like to say a word? I'll say a word before them. Good, thank you. So, just to put even a little more perspective on this, this is Christmas Eve. This didn't even start until 2 p.m. and Jonathan and Matt come into my office. 2 p.m. I am getting ready to walk out. I think I'm in my sweatpants. I am walking out the door and they tell me what they got going on. And the first thing is like, I know what the right thing to do is, but I don't want to go home. Matt and Jonathan were just about to get off themselves. I know Jonathan has young kids and a family to get to on Christmas Eve. Those two initially stopped everything. And then Cassie back there, I knew exactly where to go. So, really, so much more than what was just read went into this and really personal time on Christmas Eve with her families went into taking care of this man and his grandchildren. So, personally, my ass off for everything you did that day. That was amazing. Thank you so much. Congratulations to all those amazing officers from District 6 and from our traffic unit. Recognizing that area, I know we have some command staff here from there today, so thank you for being here for them. Our next award presenter coming up is Melissa Fox. Good morning. Just have one moment. I am the proud person who gets to introduce Detective Catherine Urbina if she's here. Do you want to come on up? Urbina. Urbina, thank you. Detective Urbina is assigned to the firearm assault team fast and was the lead detective on a case involving two women who were shot when driving away from the Denver Center for Performing Arts. The women left the Denver Center for the Performing Arts parking garage and noticed a car driving erratically and honking at the car in front of them. When the women turned from South Spear Boulevard onto West Colorado Avenue, they heard deafening noises and realized the driver's side window had holes in it. Simultaneously, the driver realized she'd been shot in the face and the passenger in her leg. They pulled over, switched places, and drove themselves to Denver Health. Detective Urbina was assigned this case and the victims afterwards submitted a letter in which they indicate from their initial interaction at Denver Health that Detective Urbina showed compassion, empathy, grace, and expertise. Detective Urbina stayed in touch with the victims, responded to all their questions, and consistently provided them with information and updates during the nine weeks of investigation. Although the suspect was not identified, the victims felt that the attention Detective Urbina gave to this case and powered them, and her sergeant shared that Detective Urbina followed every investigatory avenue. I had the pleasure of getting to know our recipient last week. During our conversation, it was quickly apparent that Detective Urbina was everything the victim said she was. Empathic and gracious, but so much more. She's humble, embodies a tremendous sense of duty, and has an extremely high expectation of herself. In fact, she didn't quite expect this award and said simply that she was doing her job. I have to say I respectfully disagree. Your focus was catching the bad guy, but it was just as important to you that the victims, in your words, felt empowered and could move forward in some meaningful way after sustaining major trauma and serious physical injuries. To use your words, if I may, knowledge is power, and at the end of the day, I work for them. What was important to you once the case was investigated was equipping the victims with the information as possible about the legal process and ensuring they understood the steps you had taken to solve the case. These women were both hurting mentally and physically. You recognized it, and your compassion led you to share your own experience as a shooting victim. You opened up to these two women even though it was a bit painful to revisit. In return, you were asked in you to talk about how it felt to function in a lesser capacity after being shot. You also used your own experience to try to make theirs better than yours. You shared what you would have done differently. For example, that you should have let more people in and not shut them out. Sometimes it's hard to draw boundaries with our victims because they are true innocents. They're hurting, and they grow to depend on us throughout our cases. They're able to draw this boundary. To this day, Detective Urbina checks on the victims and they give each other updates and check in with each other. This case exemplifies that when we help others, we sometimes unintentionally gain the benefit of healing ourselves through sharing experiences and connecting with our community. And back to the boundary setting. It should be noted that the victims invited Detective Urbina to see pink, which she respectfully defined, of course. I am honored on behalf of Citizens Appreciate Police to present this award to Detective Catherine Urbina. Thank you for what you do and thank you to all of you who support her in her mission. Sorry that we can't be there personally. You made me cry. Good job. We have a message for you from Nashville and Scotland. Yes. I just thank you. I don't know what it is. You always make me cry. But thank you for showing up for us in the way that we did. Showing is vulnerability. Through strength. Embracing our journey and just checking in when you didn't have to. Giving me a little bit about ballistics education because I thought I'd do something after googling a few things. You know, just just being authentic and real and a human and making me feel seen. But I am sure you will. I would just say for all of you sitting in the room there's a lot to be learned from Detective Urbina I'll probably call her Dr. Urbina at some point because I switched it off and on. But as a member of a profession that serves others I understand the commitment, the ownership and the burden it can be to be in the business of people. Every day you take somebody else's life as your own and you met us with compassion empathy, grace and expertise. You provided us a safe place to land in the midst of chaos and I'll never forget when we closed our last conversation after reviewing the case and deciding that we were going to close this case unsolved really. You said, what's changed for you? And our reality is everything has changed. We see the world real different and bad things that happen in this world but there are so many more good things. And I think you standing in front of this room you are evidence that strangers are amazing humans. You showed up to work you got a call, I'm sure you were tired you have a beautiful briefcase and a nice jacket, it was freezing but you are a stranger that is now one of the main characters in the most significant chapters of our lives. In the words of Gandhi if you want to change the world you have to start with yourself and thank you for doing that thank you for changing our world to the leaders in the room that support Catherine to be her authentic self it works. I would say you showed up in ways exactly how we needed you when we needed you and so thank you, thank you for allowing our families to be in the room and thank you I know that it's probably against the rules to reach out to us we're officially victims but I would say that we're more empowered because of humans like you, so thank you Thank you guys for being here today your case will never be closed it's just inactivated, I'm always looking for leads we may solve this one day, I still haven't given up so it's good to see you both Detective Catherine Urbina and congratulations Detective Urbina our next presenter that is going to come up is Keith Keith Essany will you come on up y'all see me back there you guys know I got jokes today I have the pleasure of presenting our cap award to Detective Victoria Oliver Victoria if you'd come on up I have to preface this by saying Victoria did not remember this but I do back in 2010 as a probation officer I was assigned to the gang unit I got a very interesting call from the jail from one of my defendants who said I had been green lighted by some Crips, so that information got turned over and to this day I'm not sure what Victoria may have said to that person but I heard he ended up crying but I don't know that but she did well and I definitely appreciate her for what she did now we did a few alterations to this narrative so please bear with me that's why she's standing beside me she'll punch me if it's not right I'm kidding okay Detective Cox was working off duty curbsided by when she was flagged down by a victim of aggravated domestic violence after making the report the victim advised Detective Cox that for her own safety that she could not remain in Colorado victim advocates arranged a safe place for the victim to stay overnight until she could catch her flight the following day Officer Oliver picked up the victim the next day and took her back to the airport where they learned there was an error and she had to rebook the following day sensing the victim's anxiety Officer Oliver took upon herself to pay for the woman's flight Officer Oliver met the victim and her friends at DIA the following day escorted him to the gate and made it possible for the victim's friends to go on board with her to say goodbye as somebody who now works for the DA's office and assigned to the family violence unit I can definitely appreciate the extra effort that was made here and just say thank you for all of you for everything that you do but at this time we'd like to present a cap award to Officer Victoria Oliver I'd like to say about Victoria is you know we get recognized by this organization because we wear that track but when you work at the third busiest airport of the world we also represent the brand of death and Victoria does this each and every day at times she's a victim of social media she gets caught on film because someone's I read about having to pay for their carry on bag to get checked and you see her in the background and she talks with them and it's very empathetic and it's a great example that she does each and every day congratulations Officer Oliver our next speaker if we can have Mike O'Neill come up see Officer Matthew Jeffery could you come up and I understand that oh and Officer Marty Deal Marty here he was standing in for Officer let's say your Officer this happens a lot anyway we're honoring Officer Marty Deal Officer Jordan Matthews and you're standing in for Jordan and Corporal Kendall Padilla who couldn't be here so Lieutenant Curtis standing in for good I'm not too sure who's here I'll accept that third award I just wanted to congratulate everybody that's part of this today Officer Detective Urbina truly remarkable the job she did and leave it to the Denver Police Department to punish her by making her work for Sergeant Bisgard that's part of DPD logic I owe Troy big time we worked together in District 2 I developed part palpitations almost had a nervous breakdown but he and his partner the rest of his team did just incredible work and I know that continues to this day I had the privilege of being a Denver Police Officer for 37 years I have a nephew and a son on the job and I keep waiting for them to do something good so they can be up to it Chief can you keep it close? well anyway this is just remarkable today as are all these cap board meetings and what's even more remarkable is how much of this work goes on everyday is never recognized and one of the beauties of being a police officer especially in Denver is the opportunity to do good and these officers today have all seized that opportunity and done good for others and I say most of it goes unrecognized but it's just wonderful what they do so for these three officers Officer Marty Dio Officer Jordan Mathews Corporal Kendall Padilla I'll just read it it's brief officers responded to the Walgreens at 120 North Broadway on a report from concerned staff a customer inside the store causing a disturbance the officers were able to de-escalate the situation and learned the in-store ATM did not give the individual the money he requested but did subtract it from his account leaving him without funds to manage the housing and food issues faced by himself and his 5 year old son officers connected the individual Denver Police Outreach case coordinator to assist with the immediate issues the officers then purchased food for the man and his son out of their own pockets and we are trained as police officers never to let the professional and the personal cross lines we never let the personal become a part of our jobs these officers today violated that and I'm told a lot of these suspended for 10 days without pay at least they'll have a nice award do you guys have anybody here that you want to introduce friends family do you have friends Lieutenant Curtis do you have anything you'd like to add to this it's really just a demonstration of the great work that District 3 officers do day in and day out these guys are constantly out there faced with high call volumes but yet they still manage to find the time to take that second and take that opportunity when it presents itself to really take care of the people out there in the community and it just goes to show the caliber of the people we have here at the Denver Police Department thank you Chief did he recite that the way you wrote it he even did it oh very good so anyway thank you for a job really well done you can grab the awards Chief would you like to and for our final award I'm going to ask Beck can you come up and Officer Jeffrey you should have just stayed up here I need you back please this time he is actually receiving an award along with Officer Landwehr and there she is thank you for standing in for the officers that couldn't be here we appreciate that well I want to echo something that Mike just said it was the opportunity to do good and ironically it was very close to Christmas when this happened and this was acknowledged by a fellow first responder a paramedic named Sterling Barnes sent a letter to his lieutenant went up their chain hopped the fence came up through ours and made its way to us so I'm really happy to be able to acknowledge what these officers did the day before Christmas Eve last year they had responded to a call at the Micro Center at 8000 East Quincy the call was about an elderly couple who had become stranded in Denver from their home in Conifer they had come down just anticipating making a day trip they were dressed in very inappropriate clothing very light clothing for the weather that turned so foul and their battery died and they ran out of gas the manager at the Micro Center store was able to jump the car and somebody there took up a collection of gas at the nearby station the officers who responded as well as the other first responders were really concerned about this elderly couple driving back up into the mountains it's getting late in the afternoon and it's very cold they were trying to sort out what to do with these folks because no one wanted them driving in adverse weather they went back and forth discussed it amongst themselves and came up with the officers came up with the idea of a hotel room at the nearby Marriott for the night the officers not only paid for the hotel room out of their own pocket they escorted the elderly couple over there, led them over there in their marked patrol car and escorted them into the hotel one of the comments that the paramedic who wrote the letter said is this was a Christmas miracle for the family that was helped and I absolutely agree and it's just such a wonderful opportunity for me to be able to acknowledge what you all did so thank you thank you so much for what you did because you couldn't speak for the other officers for the last award would you like to speak on your own behalf and do you have family here but either of you anyone you'd like to acknowledge to bring up co-workers anyone sorry but thank you very much for the honor okay I'm not surprised okay well I happily get to give you one you actually get to hold on to and Ken and this nifty little cover covers are up here if anybody wants them if you want it thank you so much thank you again Mike do you have the rest of the notes if anybody is here today that wanted to say anything before we close the ceremony you're welcome to come on up and speak is there any command staff or any dignitaries that had anything to say about the award winners today that would like to speak we're good alright well I just want to sincerely congratulate all of our award winners thank you thank you for the work that you do and for the difference you make we want to honor all of our Denver police officers who serve in the line of duty every day and who take the risk and the sacrifice on a daily basis to protect and keep the community members of Denver safe thank you for your service thank you to the cap board and please remember we see you we appreciate you and we need you thank you for your service today's ceremony