Published on Thursday, September 28, 2006
in the Chiefland Citizen

Top law officers honored

For the second time in three years Officer Jay Bolton has been honored as the Chiefland Police Department's Officer of the Year.The award was presented to Bolton Sept. 21 at the annual Law Appreciation Day event that was hosted by the Chiefland Woman's Club at the Tommy Usher Center. Also receiving officer of the year honors from their respective agencies that night were deputies Robert Cannon and Neal Polimeni of the Levy County Sheriff's Office, Cpl. Virgil Sandlin of Florida Highway Patrol, and Officer Jonathan Reed of Lancaster Correctional.

Chiefland Police Chief Robert Douglas said Bolton is deserving of repeat honors because of the continued commitment and high-level he has turned in over the previous year.“I'm looking at his activity and his drive,” Douglas said. “After he reports for duty, he's always out there working, he has almost no down time. He's just a very dedicated officer.”Douglas said that over the past year, Bolton has notched 67 arrests and confiscated $3,585 and four vehicles that will benefit the department through the legal forfeiture process.During that time, Douglas said, Bolton, along with his trusty K-9 Delta, has also taken the following amounts of contraband items off of the streets of Chiefland: 1,405 grams (more than three pounds) of marijuana; 12.8 grams of cocaine; one gram of methamphetamine; 17 ecstasy pills; 59 pharmaceutical pills of seven different varieties; and 104 pieces of drug paraphernalia.

From the Florida Highway Patrol's local troop, based in Cross City, Lt. Pat Riordan presented officer-of-the-year honors to Sandlin, a longtime trooper.Riordan said that even though Sandlin was not a high-ranking officer, “because of his leadership abilities and his tenure, we rely on him to fill the void,” when they need an officer to take control of a situation.He said Sandlin is also involved in training new troopers, and he is known in the department for his dependability.“He says, ‘no problem, I'll get it done',” Riordan said.

The officer of the year from Lancaster, Jonathan Reed, has impressed his superiors during his four years on the job in the Department of Corrections, according to Col. Gus Mazorra.Reed handles all of his assignments ably, Mazorra said, and he also played a significant role in completing projects during a re-accreditation process.“I kind of like to call him the ‘can-do' guy,” Mazorra said, adding that Reed is willing to work evenings and Sundays to make sure he finishes his jobs.From the county jail, Capt. Mike Sheffield named Dep. Neal Polimeni as officer of the year. He said Polimeni is instrumental in helping to train new recruits, and his positive attitude rubs off on everyone who works there. He noted that Polimeni played a large role in planning and moving the jail's operations into the new pod that was recently constructed.“He's always wanting to help, always wanting some extra job to do,” Sheffield said.From the uniform patrol division, Sheriff Johnny Smith presented the award to Dep. Cannon, who he described as a self-motivated officer who does whatever it takes to get the job done.“He has always excelled and gone above and beyond in anything he's been asked to do,” Smith said.