As he has done on numerous previous occasions, Senior Police Officer Vincent Schill on March 26 responded to an alcohol-related car crash. The manner in which the Athens-Clarke County police officer conducted his investigation was hardly routine.
In addition to the driver having indications of impairment, the officer noticed something else was wrong with the 26-year-old man, who was refusing to be treated by EMS personnel after crashing his car into a ditch off Tallassee Road.
Schill's main concern was not to arrest the man, but getting him to the hospital for a medical evaluation. He consulted with a supervisor who agreed with his assessment.
“Based on his observations, (Schill) determined (the driver) was under the influence of alcohol,” Sgt. Von Anderson, the office’s supervisor would later recall. “While this was the primary contributing factor in the accident, SPO Schill did not believe his impairment was responsible for all of the manifestations he observed.”
When Schill got the driver to the hospital, the man continued to resist attempts to examine him. A doctor immediately diagnosed him as suffering from a hemorrhage in the brain. The man underwent successful emergency surgery.
Crediting the officer with saving the life of the motorist, Anderson nominated Schill as the Athens-Clarke County Police Department’s Officer of the Quarter.
“SPO Schill most likely saved this man’s life” by “taking he time to assess the whole incident and not just seeing someone who may have been intoxicated,” Anderson said in his nominating letter.
Top police brass concurred, recently naming Schill the department’s top cop for the first quarter of 2016.
Garnering the award for the civilian police employee of the quarter was Tawana Barnett, a communications officer who displayed poise and compassion when handling an emotionally-charged 911 call from a suicidal person.
“CO Barnett’s demeanor allowed her to gain the trust of the victim and obtain information needed for police and EMS,” her supervisor said in the nominating letter.
The supervisor also mentioned two other suicide calls Barnett handled in the same month, in which the communications officer “helped end events as peacefully as possible.”
Others nominated as officer of the first quarter were senior police officers Nathan Hayes, Ricky Howard and John Jennings.
Hayes, a detective with the Criminal Investigations Division, was credited with quickly identifying two suspects who were arrested for the Feb. 4 robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder of a University of Georgia student who was attempting to make a deliver for Papa John’s Pizza.
Howard was lauded for saving the life of a woman who overdosed on heroin by administering naloxone, an agent that reverses the effects of opioid drug overdoses. He also convinced the woman to go to the hospital after she initially refused to seek crucial medical follow.
Jennings was nominated for arresting suspects in two different westside burglaries that were reported to police while they were in progress, one in January and the other in February. One arrest was made by the officer after he chased the suspect on foot.
Communications Officer Cutina Pearson was another civilian award nominee, cited for her efforts on a day in January when the 911 Center was short staffed and she persevered despite having cold and hardly any voice left. Manning a console backing up front-line dispatchers, Pearson ran criminal histories requested by officers in the field and obtained all the information they requested.
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