Looking Beyond the License Plate Award Program 2011 IACP Annual Conference October 22-26, 2011 Chicago, IL This program recognizes law enforcement officers whose observations of a license plate resulted in the apprehension of a suspect or the resolution of a crime.
Grand Prize Winner: Corporal Timothy Clifford and Officer Andrew Nucelli Arlington Country, Virginia, Police Department Honorable Mention Winners: Trooper Robert Bailey, Pennsylvania State Police (Avondale Station) Officer Eric Katzin, Riverside, Illinois, Police Departement Trooper Daniel Nilon, Pennysvania State Police (Lehighton Troop) Sergeant John Sikoski, Austin, Texas, Police Department Sergeant Michael Vargas, San Diego, California, Police Department The Program is co-sponsored by The Highway Safety Committee of the International Association of the Chief s of Police and 3M Traffic Safety Systems Division.
Grand Prize Winners Corporal Timothy Clifford and Officer Andrew Nucelli Arlington County, Virginia Early on February 27, 2010, two young women were confronted by an unknown male who forced them at gunpoint into the house they were about to enter, restrained them, and forced one of them to leave with him. The other woman was able to call 9-1-1. Four hours later, the abducted woman, suffering serious injuries, was located in Prince William County, Virginia. Between February 4 and 6, 2010, Corporal Clifford and Officer Nucelli, independent of one another had observed a vehicle without the front licensee plate, which is required in Virginia while prowling their beat. Corporal Clifford had run the vehicle s registration and also had observed its driver. Officer Nucelli recognized that the vehicle matched the description of the one in connection with the aforementioned abduction. He and Corporal Clifford immediately notified other officers, which resulted in 21-year-old Jorge A. Torrez being arrested within twelve hours of the abduction. This happened just prior to his cleaning the vehicle with the intention to dispose of crucial evidence. The officers keen observation of the absence of a front licensee plate on a vehicle whose suspicious presence had piqued their interest, coupled with their sharing thatt information with other officers, resulted in the prompt arrest of Torrez, in the recovery of critical evidence; and in his conviction in Arlington County on 14 charges. The jury recommended five life sentences plus 168 years and a $190,000 fine. Torrez also was convicted of an earlier attack in Arlingtonn County in conjunction with the aforementioned February 27, 2010 abduction, and is currently under investigation for a double homicide in Illinois.
Honorable Mention Trooperr Robert Bailey Pennsylvania State Police (Avondale Station) Trooper Bailey attempted to stop a vehicle with an inoperative tag light; the vehicle was found to be unregistered. The vehicle failed to stop and was pursued at speeds of 90 miles per hour in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, where the Trooper successfully used the Precision Intervention Technique (PIT) maneuver to halt the vehicle. The driver, Curtis T. McCoy, was on probation in Pennsylvania, for rape and kidnapping. He was identified via the FBI Laboratory s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) as being wanted by the Miami-Dade County, Florida, Police Department for three counts each of sexual battery, armed kidnapping, and armed robbery in connection with a 1982 cold case.
Honorable Mention Officer Eric Katzin Riverside, Illinois, Police Department On March 9, 2011, Officer Katzin observed a vehicle that was not displaying the required validation sticker on its license plate. He stopped the vehicle and discovered the Illinois registration had expired and the driver possessed no valid driver s license. Eventually, throughh extensive inquires, the driver was found to be wanted in North Carolinaa for parental abduction on February 19, 2010, of his then two-and four-year old children, who were reunited with their mother. Honorable Mention Trooperr Daniel Nilon Pennsylvania State Police (Lehighton Troop) On September 28, 2010 Trooper Nilon stopped a vehicle that displayed a stolen license plate. The driver was operating on a suspended driver s license and with a stolen inspection sticker. He attempted unsuccessfully to dispose of a bag of marijuana. The Trooper recovered from the vehicle a laptop that recently had been stolen in a burglary and was able to link the driverr and numerous others to a three-county burglary ring responsible for more than 20 break-ins, the possession and sale of stolen firearms, the possession with intent to deliver crack and powder cocaine, and a November 2008 drive-by shooting.
Honorable Mention Sergeant Michael E. Vargas San Diego, California, Police Department On September 25, 2010 Sergeant Vargas stopped an older model Dodge Ram truck, which had its rear license plate partially obstructed by a tow hitch, for making an illegal turn. The plate belonged on a Mercury sedan. One of the three occupants fled the scene and was apprehended in possession of two handguns a week later, was on parole for robbery with a history of assaulting and evading police officers, was a documented Nazi Low Rider gang member, and was charged with three bank robberies. The Sergeant held the others (a probationer and a parolee) until assistance arrived and found in the truck a loaded revolver and property thought to have been stolen. Subsequent investigation led officers to a nearby residence where an armed home invasionn robbery had occurred just prior to Sergeant Vargas s traffic stop. Honorable Mention Sergeant John Sikoski Austin, Texas, Police Department On May 4, 2011 while on patrol, Sergeant Sikoski observed a suspicious vehicle parked in a hotel parking lot. He ran the front license plate and received a National Crime Information Center hit indicating that the vehicle was wanted in connection with a felony; that it possibly was being driven by 31-year-old Police Department s Homicide Unit. Forbes was located and arrested for theft of the vehicle from Wheat Ridge, Colorado. The Denver detectives executed a DNA search warrant on Forbes and another search warrant on the stolen vehicle he possessed and were able to interview him in Travis E. Forbes; and that all occupants should be held for Denver, Colorado, connection with the April 1, 2011, disappearance of 19-year-old Kenia Monge, of Aurora, Colorado.