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White selected as Floyd County's Officer of the Year: Detective leading new wave of technology at department
Jan 09, 2010 (The Evening News and the Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Floyd County Sheriff's Department Detective Joel White was named Officer of the Year for 2009, the first full year since White returned from a shooting that seriously injured him and killed his partner, Frank Denzinger.
"I appreciate the award, and I appreciate the support of people like (Chief) Ted Heavrin who helped to make that happen," White said.
Sheriff Darrell Mills said White was not quite ready to become a detective when he returned to work in April of 2008.
"He was really still eager to stay in the patrol division, but under the circumstances, he transitioned extremely well," Mills said. "I can't see anybody more deserving considering what he's gone through."
White and Denzinger were responding to a domestic dispute when the two were ambushed by a 15-year-old boy who then took his own life. When White returned to work, the sheriff's department created the position of crime scene investigator because White was still recovering after being shot in the hip on June 18, 2007.
"It's a position that was needed, and Joel has excelled at it," Mills said.
White deflected praise for the award, which is decided by the police administration and the Fraternal Order of Police, instead crediting Mills for bringing in new resources that has made it easier for him to investigate crimes.
"There have been a lot of good things come from the administration," White said.
Those technological improvements include the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS, which allows access to a nationwide database of fingerprints. White said Floyd County is the only department within 100 miles that has AFIS.
"We get a good fingerprint, and we can come up with a suspect in a matter of hours," White said.
Previously, they had to use other departments' fingerprint technology, and it might take weeks or months before they returned a fingerprint match.
Investigators also have alternative light sources that allow them to look for fingerprints without needing to dust an entire house. The technology comes from federal grant money secured by Congressman Baron Hill.
Another new tool that detectives will soon have is an interrogation system that is set up for digital DVD recording and live streaming.
"We can do an interview and stream it live to a (detective's) laptop, so while someone is doing an investigation at the scene, they can see the interview," White said. "I can be at the crime scene, and the suspect says the gun is in the bush. I can say, 'Which bush because there are 30 of them?'"
White and Mills both agree that the department is big enough that it needed a full-time crime scene investigator, whether it be White or someone else.
"In the past few years, we've made leaps and bounds," White said. "We don't need to call on resources from other departments because we lack the means."
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