Congratulation to Officer Cynthia Rivera and Community Service Officer Anthony Petriello, who will be honored this afternoon as our Sworn Employee and Professional Staff of the Year!
Here’s why…
Community Service Officer Anthony Petriello is undoubtedly one of the busiest members of the professional staff in this agency. In addition to helping us make our Red Light Camera Program one of, if not the most, successful in the state, he has taken on setting up the agency’s License Plate Recognition program. He also set up and manages cameras at Sara Sims Park. During all of this, he continues to assist officers with crash reports and any other needs. He was instrumental in helping detectives with several major cases this year, to include retrieving video surveillance and LPR data in the middle of the night. Anthony’s technical knowledge has helped our agency work smarter. That he is receiving this honor for the second time in two years speaks volumes about his work ethic. For serving our department and this community with Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Excellence, Anthony Petriello is our Professional Staff Member of the Year.
Officer Cynthia Rivera – (yes the same officer who helped deliver a woman’s baby on Friday) is assigned to the Zone 3 section of the City, which has historically been associated with violent crime and drug offenses. In 2020, she made a concerted effort to reduce Part 1 crimes in this area and bring a sense of security to the law abiding community members in those neighborhoods. Her work has been nothing short of extraordinary.
When she learned that a car used in an armed robbery in another jurisdiction had been in our city, she made it her priority to find it. And she did. While on patrol, she saw it traveling east on Northwest 10th Avenue. She conducted a felony stop, and following an interview, the driver gave a post-Miranda confession to the armed robbery.
She also helped capture an armed carjacking suspect from another jurisdiction after the suspect was vehicle spotted in our city.
In one month’s time, she cultivated two confidential informants, which led to 4 successful search warrants and multiple buys for a drug sweep. She also identified 5 targets from previous drug buys.
Officer Rivera was also instrumental in identifying a car used in multiple shootings throughout the city and county. She worked tirelessly on her day off reviewing hours of photos of cars from the License Plate Recognition Program. This led to the recovery of the car and two handguns, as well as the capture of one of its occupants.
For her tremendous work ethic and serving the community with Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Excellence, Officer Cynthia Rivera is our Sworn Employee of the Year.
Officer Rivera and CSO Petriello will be honored during a ceremony this afternoon, where we will also recognize the promotions of Deputy Chief Vanessa Snow, Captain Daniel Dugger and Sergeants Astrel Labbe, Cory Herny and Evan Esteves.
