Five Arlington Police Officers were honored today at the State Capitol in Austin by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement for a variety of outstanding police work.
Deputy Chief Tarrick McGuire received the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Achievement Award for Public Service. Lieutenant Kyle Dishko received the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Achievement Award for Professional Achievement. Sergeant Richard Grimmett, who retired from the APD in 2017, and Officers Cody Adams and Charles Crawford were honored with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Award for Valor.
Deputy Chief McGuire was honored for creating and implementing the Mentoring Arlington Youth (MAY) Program in 2015. The idea behind the Mentoring Arlington Youth Program began when McGuire had an interaction with a young man he was arresting. While talking with the young man about his future, he realized the potential for positively influencing young African American and Hispanic men with role models.
Since that time, the MAY program has flourished into an award-winning program that has been recognized with the 21st Century Policing Youth-Engagement Best Practice Award by the Department of Justice, the 2016 L. Anthony Sutin Civic Imagination Award and the 2016 Michael Shanahan Award for Excellence in Public/Private Cooperation.
Lt. Dishko was honored for helping initiate a pilot program called Project "RAISE" in 2015. The multi-faceted program was aimed at helping families of domestic abuse and how the department responded to repeat incidents. The department started making home visits to domestic abuse locations with trained counselors and officers. The counselors and officers would visit with the individuals, providing them resources to help prevent repeat calls as well as resources for any children at the home.
The results speak for themselves. In 2016 the department saw an 86 percent reduction in repeated calls for service and in 2017 the number was 83 percent. In 2016, Project "RAISE" won the Texas Municipal League Municipal Excellence Award in the Public Safety.
Sergeant Grimmett and Officers Adams and Crawford were honored for helping capture an armed robbery suspect on September 25, 2015. The suspect had committed multiple armed robberies and carjackings.
Sgt. Grimmett and Officer Adams attempted to stop the suspect's vehicle as he momentarily slowed down, but the suspect opened the driver's side door and began firing at officers. Officers returned fire, but the suspect fled once again in the vehicle while continuing to fire shots at officers. As the pursuit continued, Officer Crawford headed to the scene of the shooting. He saw the suspect vehicle approaching. Knowing the suspect had just fired shots at other officers, Officer Crawford fired his weapon at the suspect, and ultimately stopped the threat to the community.
No major injuries were suffered by innocent civilians during suspects deadly rampage.
"It was amazing that no officers or innocent citizens were killed during this gunman's violent crime spree involving two bank robberies and two carjacking offenses. I am extremely proud of the heroic actions and response by our team of officers," Police Chief Will Johnson said at the time.
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