The Ohio State University Police Division recognized several officers and members of the community with its 2022 Annual Award ceremony on Friday, March 10, 2023.
“This is a celebration for us to recognize great quality performance from our officers,” Deputy Chief Eric Whiteside said.
Lieutenant DeRon McIntyre won Supervisor of the Year while Adam Tabor was named Officer of the Year. Other awards given included Distinguished Service, Team Awards and a Citizen Award.
Tabor was honored due to his outstanding work as the agencies training coordinator. Following the unrest and changes that stemmed from 2020, the Ohio legislature mandated 24 hours of continuing professional training for all Ohio peace officers in 2021. Every single officer was required to attend 16 hours of training from a list of 7 categories, and then another 8 hours of training from another 10 categories. For OSUPD, this meant 1,728 hours of training had to be tracked and recorded and Tabor led this effort.
“Anytime you get recognized by your colleagues it’s special, particularly when your colleagues mean so much to you, which they do here,” Tabor said.
McIntyre was recognized for his leadership and commitment to the agency as well as the officers he supervises. He routinely goes the extra mile and has used his personal interest in jujitsu to encourage three night shift officers to pursue the hobby.
“I just like talking to my kids about the best that you can be,” McIntyre said. “I like to have them see dad accomplish things and I really like for them to strive to accomplish things as well so that’s probably the most special part.”
Officers Dave Ferimer, Lou Gibson and Adam Featherling each won the Distinguished Service Award which goes to a member or employee of the Division for continuing service in a skill, area or assignment characterized by sustained performance at a high level, or great personal growth and development in a difficult task or challenging skill, the impact of which is of major importance to the division or community.
Team awards went to the:
- Ordnance Team, comprised of Officers Adam Tabor, Douglas Welker, Jason Becker, Jeremy Allen, and Dustin Mowery
- Joint Policing Team, including Officers Ariel Ross, Douglas Welker, and Thomas Schneider
- Canine Team, including Officers Bryan Thompson, Steven Laman, Kyle Yeager, and Chuck Gierach
Finally, OSUPD recognized citizen volunteers from a recent active threat training with the Citizen Award.
“These men and women so graciously and selflessly volunteered their time for two weeks to help our officers become better prepared to respond to an active threat situation,” the nomination read.