Five D.C. police officers and civilian employees were honored Thursday for going above and beyond the call of duty.
The winners were: Jason Medina, Officer of the Year; Alexander Mac Bean, Detective of the Year; Jeremy Brady, Reserve Officer of the Year; Dr. Laurie Samuel, Civilian Employee of the Year; and Katrice Purdie, Support Staff Employee of the Year.
The Criminal Intelligence Branch was named the Specialized Unit of the Year.
Mac Bean worked in the sex crimes unit, where he had a 120 percent closure rate in 2011, including a previously unsolved case in which a teenage girl was pulled into a car and raped at knifepoint in 2000.
He also closed a series of cases in which the perpetrator impersonated a law enforcement officer.
Supervisors and colleagues said Mac Bean’s work ethic and dedication inspired them to work harder.
“Detective Mac Bean makes prosecutors better prosecutors,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Suttenberg. “He works hard on his cases, he believes in his cases and pushes them to the extreme.”
She described how Mac Bean got the idea to use a police helicopter to photograph crime scenes to show a jury the proximity of three related attacks.
Medina, a patrol and schools officer who works east of the Anacostia River, was honored for helping bring a baseball field to the area, where dozens of children now play organized baseball.
He was also involved in a beautification project at Watts Park.
“Officer Medina has a calming spirit, one that encourages young people to do better,” said Amin Muslim, who works in the office of D.C. Councilwoman Yvette Alexander.
When a 5-year-old girl asked Medina to come to her birthday party, the officer showed up two weeks later on his day off to grill hamburgers, Muslim said.
Reserve Officer Brady worked 1,958 hours and made 39 arrests in 2011.
Reserve officers are not paid.
Thursday’s was the seventh annual law enforcement awards event hosted by the Washington DC Police Foundation.
