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Show Employee of the Year Award Jennifer Olney has been a Records Secretary for the department since 1994. Year after year she demonstrates her value to the success of our organization. She excels in organizational skills. She is appreciated by her co-workers for her friendly attitude and dedicated work ethic. She is effective in her use of time and keeps busy with her assigned duties. She looks for opportunities to help others. She understands that the citizens of our community are our customers cus-tomers and responds quickly to their requests for service. An Orem businessman had this to say about Jennifer: "I'm involved in the service industry and I know that you folks are too. I just wanted to let you know what a great job Jennifer Olney did for me when I needed help. She went out of her way to get the information I needed so that I could do my job, and then she faxed it to my office, freeing me from having to make a trip to your office to pick the information up. She made my job a lot easier today and I just wanted to let someone know that." (Chris Erickson, Claims Agent with State Farm Insurance) When Jennifer sees a need, she does something about it. In 2002, she recognized rec-ognized a need as the department struggled with a shortage of people in dispatch. dis-patch. Jennifer volunteered to become trained as a HAD instructor. She thoroughly thor-oughly understands the Government Records Access Management Act (GRAMA) and protects the city and the department by properly releasing requested reports to the public. Jennifer and her husband, Greg, are the parents of three children. Orem Police Officer of the Year vv Jennifer Olney Officer Kirk Denning was nominated by his peers as the recipient of the 2002 Police Officer of the Year award. Kirk was hired by the department as a public safety officer in 1996. Prior to that time, he worked as a police officer in St. George, Utah. Topping the list of Kirk's notable qualities quali-ties is his positive attitude. He seems to have learned that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent what you do with it. He decides to be positive. Kirk is looked up to by the other officers in the department. They value his insight, experience experi-ence and attention to detail. He readily accepts responsibilities, one of which is as a field training officer for newly hired officers in the department. One officer had this to say about Kirk: "Officer Denning is a team player and willing will-ing to help anyone on the department, in any way he can. His actions demonstrate a strong desire to see the department excel as an organization. He is physically physi-cally fit and recognizes the importance this plays in law enforcement." A supervisor on the department gave Kirk high praise when he said, "Officer Denning is the kind of officer that I can tell new officers to pattern themselves after what Kirk does and they will succeed in law enforcement." enforce-ment." Kirk and his wife, Lisa, are the proud parents of a daughter and three I . i v - " Officer Kirk Denning LeGrand J. 3alcer & BethW. Baker Exemplary Service Award The award was established in honor of LeGrand J. Baker (1909-195) and Beth W. Baker (1920-), two outstanding Utah peace officers who served the citizens of Provo City and Utah County with honesty, integrity and dedication. LeGrand joined the Provo Police Department in 1947 as a patrolman. While with the department, he served in numerous positions of leadership leader-ship and was serving as Provo's first appointed police captain when he retired in 1969. He received the Outstanding Peace Officer of Utah County Award in 1956. LeGrand was a graduate of the FBI National Academy. Beth was hired as a jail matron for the Utah County Sheriff's Department and began working at the old Utah County Jail in Provo in 1959. She was the first to serve as Chief Matron of Utah County. Beth served faithfully for 23 years, until her retirement in 1982. Each year a police officer or dispatcher is honored for his consistent example of fidelity, dedication and integrity in the performance of their law enforcement duties. In 2002, the recipient of this prestigious presti-gious award was Sergeant Charles Wakamatsu. Sgt. Wakamatsu has worked for the Orem Department of Public Safety since 1988. He oversees the community education programs of the department, which include the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) Program, Neighborhood Watch and McGruff Houses. In addition, addi-tion, Sgt. Wakamatsu is Officer Friendly. He uses magic tricks to both entertain and emphasize important points he wants to impress upon the minds of the children in Orem elementary elemen-tary schools. When not busy teaching important messages about safety to our children, Sgt. Wakamatsu takes an active role in teaching arrest control tactics and firearm retention skills to department officers. Sergeant Charles Wakamatsu sons. |