 Before we begin our awards ceremony today we would like to acknowledge the passing of our longtime cap board member, Mark Poetler. Mark passed away unexpectedly last weekend. His wisdom and guidance and humor were just a few of the reasons that Mark will forever leave his impression on the capboard. For those of you who were fortunate enough to see Mark present a cap award you saw his fondness and genuine compassion for our men and women in blue. We leaned on Mark for his expertise and experience and he was an invaluable member of our board. Mark was a graduate of DU Law School and some highlights of Mark's career include being the director of the Colorado organized crime strike force, a deputy district attorney for more than 28 years and most recently Mark spent 11 years as a municipal judge in Lakewood and Mountain View, Colorado. Capboard member Linda Tafoya shared this about Mark. Some people in life demand respect and others earn our respect. Mark absolutely earned our respect and we will miss him greatly. The cap board would like to ask for a moment of silence in Mark's memory. Thank you. Citizens appreciate police also known as cap honors officers of the Denver Police Department who provide service to 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 pen. This pen is the only civilian awarded pen to to allowed to be worn on a Denver police officers uniform. Presentations of these awards take place four times a year. To date, more than 550 members of the Denver Police Department have received the cap award. Thank you for those wonderful words about Mark. Even not having Mark physically here, he still will be a very hard act to follow. So please give me a little grace when I tried to live up to the standard he set for all of us. And with that, I would like to start with Officer Montoya, Anthony Montoya. If you could please join me up here, that would be terrific. Morning again. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. All right, we're thrilled to have you here. Thank you. Alrighty. So back in November of last year, Officer Montoya was working at the desk at District four when a woman came in with two children. The woman who was deaf was from Arizona and was traveling with her kids on a little mini vacation in Colorado. She was having help with from her grandmother to fund this excursion. And that help was coming in form of one of those little cards from Walmart that you supposedly can load with ease and the recipient can access it with ease and carry on with whatever they're doing. Unfortunately, on the day this woman came into the station, the Walmart card was not cooperating. She presented Officer Montoya with documentation of the numerous attempts that her mother had made trying to help get them home to Arizona and absolutely was not working. She came into the station to ask for assistance. Officer Montoya spent the time to call around district four to various churches. Oftentimes, churches are able to help with emergency funds, but you really have to work at it to scrape together enough to accomplish your goal. He was able to come up with enough information to give to this woman all the while communicating with her any more interesting way than I'm communicating with you now. She was able to read lips and he wrote notes. So you wrote things out, contact information, addresses, whom to contact. And he came up with quite a list to get her on her way back to Arizona to make her plight even more dire. She was out of gas. So she was given. Thank you very much of his own volition. He gave her $20 to fill up her tank and get her on her way to see the churches and get herself and her kids safely home to Arizona. Officer Montoya's supervisors stated that he is an exemplary officer that always goes above and beyond to help the citizens of Denver as well as fellow officers. And he does this all while maintaining a positive and energetic persona. And I can tell you from my brief interlude of working with Officer Montoya, where I gave him yes, no, yes, no kinds of things to do over a very short amount of time. He never lost his temper with me. He was always polite and was a doll to pleasure to work with. Sorry, I'm showing my age. Anyways, I am really, really happy to be able to present this award to you as well as the pin. So there you are. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Can I have Officer Hewitt come up front and hang out with me for a few moments? You as nervous as I am. So back on October 20, October seventh of 2023, District One officer Jordan Hewitt was at a convenience store in the 1400 block of North Perry Street. She encountered a woman who was visibly upset. When she spoke with the woman, the officer learned that she had recently lost her debit card and was out of gas and needed to get home to Broomfield, needing no more explanation. Officer Hewitt used her own money to buy gas for the woman so she could make it home. That's awesome because we know how expensive gas is. I wanted to read a little part of what her sergeant sent in that really touched my heart. He says Officer Hewitt is one of the most valuable team members. She consistently strives for excellence. I am fortunate to have such a valuable and compassionate team member and officer of the Denver Police Department. Sincerely, Sergeant Jason Durran. So it's my honor to present this award to you and your pin. You're welcome. Good morning. I'd like to call up Officer Armando Jaramillo, Jr. and Officer Frankie Archuleta. On September 13, 2023, District One officer Armando Jaramillo and Officer Frankie Archuleta responded to a call for service in the area of West 17th Avenue and North Sheridan Boulevard. After a young father called requesting assistance for him and his nine year old son. After learning about the father's efforts to secure other services to no avail, the officers used the district credit card to obtain a hotel room for the pair. The father also mentioned that he and his son had not eaten for an extended period of time. Upon hearing this, Officer Jaramillo used his own money to purchase dinner for the family before giving them a ride to their hotel. The father was extremely grateful for the officer's compassion and generosity. Thank you so much. And now I'd like to call up Officer Kyle Tennyson. You could have brought your son up with you. On October 8, 2023, District Six Officer Kyle Tennyson responded to the 500 block of East Colfax on a report of an assault. While he was there, he was flagged down by a father and his nine year old son. The father explained that he was experiencing homelessness and that he and his son were turned away from an area shelter. He went on to explain that he had an appointment in the upcoming days with Denver Human Services, but needed a safe place for him and his son to stay in the meantime. Officer Tennyson used the District Six credit card to secure a hotel room for the pair. However, the young boy was still experiencing some levels of stress due to being hungry. Officer Tennyson learned that the small family had not eaten all day. He used his own money to purchase food for both of them and then gave them a ride to the hotel. I asked Detective Alicia Martinez and Officer Christopher Velarde to come up for us. It's not your first time up here, is it? All right. On July 5 of 2023, District for then Officer Alicia Martinez and Officer Christopher Velarde responded to the 4700 block of South Wadsworth Boulevard on report of elder abuse. When Detective Martinez, an officer of Velarde arrived, they met with the caller who told them that an elderly female was trying to move into their rented apartment. The elderly female victim had been living with her adult son, but was advised that it was no longer safe to stay with him. On this evening, the son drove the elderly victim to a location and dropped her off telling the renter that she was their problem now. The elderly woman was left without money, credit cards or transportation and was now essentially stranded with no other options for housing. Due to the victim's age and medical condition, a shelter was not a viable option. Detective Martinez, an officer of Velarde made the decision to take the female victim to a hotel with funds provided by department resources. After speaking in more detail with the victim, Detective Martinez and Officer Velarde discovered that she had not eaten all day. Acting with empathy and compassion, Detective Martinez and Officer of Velarde took it upon themselves to order and pay for room service from the hotel restaurant with their own money so that she wouldn't go hungry for the evening. For this active compassion and empathy, we would like to recognize you, Detective Martinez, and you, Officer Velarde, with a cap award. Are you good? Okay. Can you go ahead and come up, please? Good morning. I have the honor to present Detective Michael Felsos this morning. And I will be reading what was presented to us a couple weeks ago. On September 17, 2023, Denver police officers received a call regarding a stolen truck that belonged to a family living out of state. When their truck was stolen, it had all the family's belongings and traveling belongings inside. Detective Felsos, he took the case, the stolen truck was recovered, but the family's belongings were not. Detective Felsos, he discovered that another vehicle was stolen around the same time as the truck and that it was recovered with several items in it that did not belong to that owner. Detective Felsos, he responded to the house where the second stolen car had been returned and with permission, entered that vehicle. Detective Felsos identified the items that belonged to the family whose truck was stolen from out of state, and he went out of his way to make sure that all the belongings were returned. Detective Felsos, these actions were so impactful that the truck owner wrote the following to Chief Ram Thomas. And I'm quoting here for the from what was said to Chief Thomas. On the last afternoon of the family get together. My pickup was stolen along with three of my kids stuff. Denver is huge along with your department. My daughter's computer had been stolen along with two of my son's things. Two of his sons are police officers. We got the pickup back and the kids computers along with two suitcases that were untouched. I bring this to your attention because I want to commend Detective Felsos who works in auto theft. Not only did he catch the bad guys, he was instrumental in retrieving my kids stuff. I was very impressed with his work ethic and professionalism and encouraged that there really are good people who care. Would ask you to help me out with honoring Detective Mike Felsos. Now I'm just putting Mike on the spot. See, nobody else did that. Okay. Yeah, thanks man. It's just an honor to work for this department, I have to say and I appreciate all of you that came today. I've been a cop for probably going on 34 years now and feels like day one. I'm not burned out. I love it. I love Denver. I've been through some things in the past through my 34 years and with the help of friends and family and the family of my blue brothers and sisters of Denver PD. I just I'm ecstatic to be here and to Mark Potler. I adore him dearly. I miss him so much. He was a great guy. But you know, to all the young guys out there, I guess everybody's younger than me now in here, but you know, you go through life with some regrets, but you try to limit them. You try to do the best you can every day and you'll plug through and try to be as happy as you can and enjoy your life. Don't work too much off duty because that that'll take care of your your days off. But anyway, if you come to work every day and try to be happy, and it becomes a habit. And hopefully that's what I I give to everybody and just love being here. And thank you so much. Thank you for that. See a recruiter chief. I'm ready to re enlist. Well, Christie finds the commendation. There it is. I would just like to say that these officers are absolutely remarkable. The same type of officers we see every ceremony that one of the ways I look at them is if I was a victim of a crime, I really hope somebody like them would show up. And there are hundreds of them out there fortunately. Let's see. How about young officer Kim? Could you come up? Well, Mike is coming up. I just wanted to say that we all miss Mark potler. He really was a remarkable guy. He loved the police. His family, God, not necessarily in that order. And he reminded me often at these ceremonies, one of the things these officers live is what Saint Francis of Assisi said 500 years ago, which is why you can do good. And Mark holds the distinction of being one of the few lawyers ever allowed into heaven. Hopefully you can cut that out. So we have here officer Michael Kim on December 4th, 2023 District 2 officer Michael Kim responding to a call. Officer Michael Kim on December 4th, 2023 District 2 officer Michael Kim responded to the 4400 block of East 12th on a report of a disturbance. When officers arrived on scene, they encountered a man who was refusing to leave the area. The complainants did not want to press charges and the man just asked for a ride to a different part of the city. Not only did officer Kim provide the man with a courtesy ride, during their exchange, he also learned that the man had not eaten and stopped to buy him a meal before dropping him off. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was working in District 2, my wife would give me $2 a night to eat on because the rest went to diapers and formula. And so I suspect that some of these officers that are paying for meals are eating tuna fish at night from 7-Eleven or not eating at all. So Mike, thank you very much for what you do for the department. Would you like to say a word? Have to keep it to 20 minutes. It's a tough act to follow the detective, but thank you everybody for being here. I'm going on my 20th year in law enforcement, but I've only been at DPD for about two years now and I don't regret the change whatsoever. And my wife, taking pictures of me in the back, is a captain with the Denver Sheriff's Department. So we've been kind of part of the Denver family for as long as I can remember. And I'm just happy to be here. Thank you. Well, it's my wife, Michelle. Nice to have you here. How about your sergeant? Is your sergeant, John? My sergeant is not here. Commander Aragon, my district commander, Lieutenant Curtis, Lieutenant Malo, and Lieutenant Costigan, I believe are all here. I don't know if anybody else from district two is here. Commander Aragon, really a whipcracker. Just horrible. I wouldn't put you on the spot. I get along great with myself. There's one, Carlos. Chief Thomas was not able to be here with us today, but here representing him is Deputy Chief Montoya. Would you like to come up and say a few words, please? Well, good morning. Mike, there is one guy on the job older than you. All right. But anyway, again, I want to thank everybody that came, the family, the officers command that comes out to support these things. I especially want to thank the cap board for keeping this rolling for 46 years. This is really important, this type of attention that it brings to the department. We go to award ceremony all the time where you're getting the awards for all the TV stuff, all the heroic stuff, and you pin medals on the chest. And those are great events. They really are. But these events are the ones that are untold. Things like this happen every day. Being on this job, I used to see it. I know that the compassion that the Denver police officers have put on these uniforms have, the compassion for people. And it's always been that way. That's why I'm so proud to be a member of this Denver police department. But the impacts that you made, the stories we're here today, these are the ones that resonate with people. These are the ones that stick with people. They'll always remember that moment. They'll always remember the Denver police department because of that act of kindness. And those are the important ones. Those are the ones that build the bridges and help us remain at a high status with the community as we should be. So again, I want to thank everybody. I want to thank the officers for your kindness and your generosity and the people that took the time to recognize them, the citizens, and the supervisors that take that extra step to write these up and get them recognized. So very important. And I want to thank everybody for being here. Appreciate it. All right. A quick note. A quick note, we are going to ask all of our recipients for as soon as we wrap up the ceremony, if you could please just briefly step outside. For a real quick picture, we'd like to have all of our recipients with their awards outside briefly for a picture. And then we can come right back inside. We hope as we honor our award recipients today, we also indirectly honor all the numerous untold stories of our Denver police officers who serve our community above and beyond the call of duty daily. The Cat Board would like to extend our gratitude to all our dignitaries and guests for attending today's ceremony. We congratulate all of today's nine award recipients. We sincerely appreciate your above and beyond service to our community. We would also like to acknowledge all the dedicated Denver police officers as you go about your day-to-day duties we want you to know. We recognize the risks you face daily, the sacrifice you stand ready for, and your unwavering commitment to serve and protect all those who call Denver home. We want all the men and women who as a whole that make up the Denver police department to know. We see you, we appreciate you, and we need you. From our Cat Board to all of you, thank you for your service. This concludes today's ceremony.