Community Recognition Awards and Glendale Police Foundation

Our Installation and Community Recognition Awards Banquet is on Jan. 22 at the Oakmont Country Club. We will be recognizing several organizations, businesses and people at this event. Over the next few weeks I will highlight these award winners to show you why they were chosen.

Our Organization of the Year Award winner is the Glendale Police Foundation. Each year, the Glendale Police Dept. is asked to do more for public safety with fewer officers and less funding. The GPF provides the tools, training, technology and equipment that might otherwise go unfunded to help the GPD promote public safety, strengthen community/police partnerships, encourage innovation and promote officer safety. The GPF also helps fund the highly successful K-9 and SWAT units of the GPD. The K-9 unit, one of the top crime-fighting K-9 units in the country, tracks down dangerous suspects, secures buildings and detects explosives, firearms, and drugs, locates missing persons and finds evidence. The GPD recently combined the SWAT unit with the K-9 unit to add a level of protection for the SWAT team.

According to GPD, “A SWAT team is a designated unit of law enforcement officers that is specifically trained and equipped to work as a coordinated team to resolve critical incidents that are so hazardous, complex, or unusual that they may exceed the capabilities of first responders or investigative units including, but not limited to, hostage taking, barricaded suspects, snipers, terrorist acts and other high-risk incidents.” Because the SWAT team is often called into dangerous situations, to protect the officer(s), the K-9 unit is sent in first. Great teamwork! The GPF also helps support the GPD Explorers.

The Glendale Police Dept. Explorer program is a volunteer program for young people between the ages of 14 and 21. The program allows the Explorers to learn the “ins and outs” of police work and prepare for a rewarding career in law enforcement. During Explorers’ preparation, they are allowed to “ride-along” with officers, fly in a police helicopter, perform in competitions and participate in department events. The Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber of Commerce will be making a donation to the Explorers at our banquet using proceeds from our highly successful 1st Annual Food and Brewfest.

Lastly, the GPF helps support the Verdugo Regional Crime Laboratory (VRCL). Housed at the GPD, the lab serves Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena. The existing crime scene investigations, latent print processing and computer forensics were combined with the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) and our new DNA testing laboratory. The lab is accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors and the Laboratory Accreditation Board and technicians can test DNA, computer forensic and ballistic evidence, identify bodily fluids, and process latent prints and crime scenes.

The local accredited lab allows forensic investigators to process crime scene evidence from Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena faster. Before establishing the crime lab, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. processed most DNA evidence for law enforcement agencies in the region, which led to a large forensic backlog, especially for property crimes. That is an amazing amount of work done on behalf of the City of Glendale and surrounding cities. No wonder the FBI released a recent report naming Glendale one of the safest cities in the nation.

We are taking reservations for our 96th annual Installation and Community Recognition Awards Banquet on Jan. 22. Tickets are $55 per person or an entire table of 10 is available buy for $500. To buy tickets, please send payment to the Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber Office, 3516 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale, CA 91208 or call us at (818) 249-7171.

Have a great holiday season and enjoy the beauty that is the Montrose Shopping Park.

Our office is closed from Friday, Dec. 19 through Friday, Jan. 2. The Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber of Commerce office will reopen on Monday, Jan. 5.

Our Installation & Community Recognition Awards Dinner is on Thursday, Jan. 22 from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Oakmont Country Club, 3100 Country Club Dr., Glendale.

The February “Valentine” business mixer is on Wednesday, Feb. 4 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at ETC Gourmet Kitchen, 3600 Ocean View Blvd., Montrose.

  melinda clarke