Ceremony to Honor Nation's 'Top Cops'
Aug. 5, 2000 -- One of them risked his life by secretly infiltrating what police call a violent biker gang.
Another took eight bullets while foiling a robbery at a sports bar, even though he was officially off duty.
A third quarterbacked an investigation that broke up a multistate child prostitution ring.
Not too shabby.
But only one case can produce the nation’s “top cop.”
The honor will go to one of 10 officers or teams tonight at what organizers call a “Hollywood-style” ceremony in Washington.
“I have no expectation of winning it,” says Special Agent Blake L. Boteler of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. His two-year infiltration of the Sons of Silence biker club in Colorado resulted in numerous drug and weapons arrests and ongoing threats against his life, he adds.
“If I do [win], I’d be honored,” Boteler says. “If I don’t, I’m just glad to be considered with these guys.”
What ‘Top Cops’ Are Made Of
“These guys” include Alaska State Trooper Scott D. Quist, who found and rescued two missing men by airplane as high winds blew sheets of snow in frozen wilderness.
They include Special Agent in Charge Michael C. Vigil of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Puerto Rican Division. He led an international operation that netted nearly 1,300 arrests, tons of marijuana and other drugs, and stockpiles of weapons. The seizures occurred in Jamaica, Curacao, Haiti and other countries.
Maryland Heights, Mo., police Detective Joe Delia broke up the child prostitution ring, bringing the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Minneapolis police into an operation that yielded 18 convictions in four states.
And Las Vegas police Officer Dennis Devitte took two bullets in the left thigh and one each in the right side of the stomach, the left side of the groin, the right knee, the right hand, the right thumb and the buttocks while breaking up an early morning armed robbery at “Mr. D’s” sports bar. He shot two of the three masked suspects, one fatally.
Devitte says he’d intervene again, even though the suspects were firing at bar patrons with semi-automatic weapons and he only had a .25-caliber handgun.
“I knew why I did it,” he says. “They were shooting people. Their whole idea was to just go killing people.”
Rounding out this year’s 13 “Top Cops” are Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Carmona, representing Arizona; Los Angeles police officers Cynthia French and Romik Keshish and Sgt. Joan Leuck, representing California; West Windsor police Officer Lee F. Evans, representing New Jersey; U.S. Customs Service Senior Special Agent Donald A. Daufenbach, representing Utah; and King County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph P. Craig and Sergeant Patrick A. “K.C.” Saulet, representing Washington state (see Web link at right for more on their cases).
‘Cops’ Honor Cops Actors who play cops on television were to reveal the identity of the real-life top cop, or cops. The winner of the “Citizens Choice Award” has been determined by a mail-in vote of Americans outside law enforcement, but will remain secret until the 7:30 p.m. ET ceremony at the Warner Theater in Washington.
Richard Belzer, who plays a police detective on Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit, and Lynne Russell, a television news anchor and real-life Fulton County, Ga., reserve deputy sheriff, are hosting tonight’s seventh annual Top Cops ceremonies. Other television personalities known for playing police were to serve as presenters.
Besides the television celebrities, a political celebrity dropped by before the awards. Campaigning for president, Vice President Al Gore called for 10,000 more prosecutors, 40,000 more police on America’s streets and a ban on armor-piercing bullets. He added that he was impressed by the acts of the Top Cops.
“I have been humbled, truly humbled, by the courage, the heroism [and] the self sacrifice by the winners of this award,” Gore said.
Nominated by Fellow Cops
The voters for the Citizens Choice Award are civilian members of the National Association of Police Organizations, a political lobbying group that sponsors Top Cops. They selected a winner from the association’s 13 top cops representing 10 states or U.S. territories.
The 10 finalist cases were chosen from 52 entries representing all U.S. states, plus American territorial possessions. They and the other 42 state winners, or “Honorable Mention Top Cops,” were drawn from hundreds of candidates nominated by fellow cops at the local level.
“You’re nominated for anything from community service to heroic action,” says Jody Couser, a NAPO spokeswoman. “That’s what makes the award so special — that your peers want to nominate you for going above and beyond the call of duty, whatever that might be.”
The Top Cops awards, and similar awards co-sponsored by the International Association of Police Chiefs and Parade magazine, are among the most prestigious of their type, according to Jim Pasco of the national Fraternal Order of Police.
Pasco adds that the FOP recently lobbied for a government award to recognize heroic public safety workers. The Medal of Valor, for those who have performed with conspicuous bravery and selflessness, may be awarded for the first time in May 2001, he says.
ABCNEWS Radio’s Andy Field contributed to this report.