By Rick Pfeiffer
I have to begin this week’s column by giving props to the officers presented with hardware at the Falls police annual awards ceremony last Friday.
I was out-of-town and couldn’t attend the ceremony, but a quick glance at the list of honorees left no doubt that they are some of the Falls’ finest.
Happy to see Traffic Officer Franco Tallarico received the Distinguished Senior Officer Award and that Detective Patricia McCune was honored with the Outstanding Detective Award. Franco and Patty are two of the hardest working, but low key, cops you’ll ever find.
It’s really nice to see them recognized. Sometimes good guys do finish first.
Lt. Angela Munn and Officer Mike Corcoran were each honored for their strong work in the community. Corcoran was the driving force behind the arrest this week of a prolific graffiti tagger and works tirelessly out of the 19th Street substation.
Munn has been the go to liaison for block clubs, business associations and anyone else for as long as I can remember.
Got to say I smiled broadly when I saw Officer Mike Tarnowski was given the Jimmy Thompson Memorial Award, named after the long time Niagara County cops reporter. Mike is one of the friendliest but toughest cops you find and is an incredible credit to the Falls police.
The Chief’s Award, given to Lt. Bryan DalPorto, Officers Mike Drake and Dave Cudahy and Communications Tech John Wojewoda, is recognition to the role those guys played in the move to the new police headquarters on Main Street. It was a Herculean job and those four guys helped to make it possible.
There are a lot of very good police officers that the public may not know by name because they simply go about their work in a professional manner and never look for headlines. Officer Matt Illig, the Samaritan Award winner and Officer Phil Tripi, an Honorable Service Medal Winner, both richly deserve their recognition.
Likewise, the other Honorable Service Award winners, Narcotics Division Detectives Tom Rodriguez, John Faso and Chris Clark, certainly deserve the city’s thanks for their tireless efforts in the war on drugs.
The Wounded in Combat Medals went to Officers Walt Nichols and Mike Bird, for the injuries they suffered in a domestic violence related shoot-out on South Avenue in Feb. 2009. At the same time, the department’s Medial of Honor was given to Nichols, Bird, Lt. Kelly Rizzo and Roving Anti-Crime Unit Officers Rick Fleck and Nick Granto.
Rizzo, Fleck and Granto rode to the rescue of their wounded colleagues even as shotgun blasts continued in their direction.
That, my friends, is what heroes do.
Contact reporter Rick Pfeiffer
at 282-2311, ext. 2252.
