Officer of the Year - 2001

      
                        Ofc. Leo J. Fitzpatrick Jr.

For consistently superior performance of duty throughout the year 2000, Officer Leo J. Fitzpatrick, Jr. is hereby named Natick Police Department Officer of the Year for the year 2001.

Officer Fitzpatrick is the department Crime Analyst whose duties, in addition to his primary function, now include payroll, accounts receivable and payable, assisting in the development of the department budget and its administration, police detail administration, attendance, and special projects.

Prior to February 2000, Officer Fitzpatrick was tasked with many of the above duties, sharing those responsibilities with the department’s then administrative officer, Officer Richard Donovan. Immediately following Officer Donovan’s very serious illness and throughout Officer Donovan’s sixteen month absence prior to his retirement in April 2001, Officer Fitzpatrick willingly and enthusiastically used his considerable administrative and computer programming skills to streamline all of the administrative processes thereby making it unnecessary, for the immediate future, to reassign or hire another person to give him assistance in carrying out his increased workload.

A critical component of the department’s new patrol strategy includes continuous crime and incident analysis and timely reporting of this information to all department personnel. To that end, despite his heavy workload, Officer Fitzpatrick collects information from other law enforcement agency sources, reviews department incident reports and records, and publishes a weekly crime analysis bulletin. The bulletin serves as a catalyst for area commanders, supervisors, and patrol personnel to develop plans for dealing with criminal events as well as the myriad non-criminal, so-called "quality of life" issues that are so important to Natick residents. The department crime analysis bulletin serves as a model for other communities developing crime analysis capabilities, and is circulated among eastern Massachusetts detectives at their monthly meetings.

Officer Fitzpatrick’s tireless efforts in behalf of the entire department make him an overwhelming and popular choice for this distinction and award. His dedication to the accomplishment of the department’s mission reflects credit on himself and the Natick Police Department.

I am very pleased to formally and publicly commend and name Officer Leo J. Fitzpatrick, Jr. the Natick Police Department Officer of the Year for 2001.

Dennis R. Mannix
Chief of Police