2007 Telecommunicator of the Year

Jack Stokes, Forth Worth Police Department

On December 20, 2007, officers called out in pursuit of a stolen vehicle.  The pursuit lasted for approximately 15 minutes and ended in a Critical Police Incident.  As the suspect tried to avoid the stop sticks officers had laid out he over corrected and ended up wrecking his vehicle and facing the opposite direction.  As the officers approached the suspect vehicle the suspect attempted to run down an officer and did ram his patrol vehicle.  The officer shot the suspect who was later pronounced dead on the scene.  PSCII Jack Stokes took over the tedious task of ensuring that the officers on scene received the things they needed.  This would include ordering Crime Scene, Fire Department, and an ambulance, requesting notifications of command staff, and ensuring there were enough officers at the scene to preserve the scene and provide crowd control.  Jack accomplished these tasks with ease and professionalism.  He remained calm and rational.  Numerous times command staff on scene was heard calling Jack by name and thanking him for his assistance.   

On July 3, 2007, the north side of Fort Worth experienced immense flooding for the second time in a week.  The freeways were closed due to water being over them.  In addition there were several bridges that lead into housing communities that were near flooding and if they actually flooded it would have been extremely difficult to provide service to these communities.  There was an unusually heavy amount of radio traffic on the North Patrol channel due to the additional officers being utilized because of the flooding.  The radio channel was split in half to improve response times to citizens in need.  PSCII Jack Stokes volunteered to dispatch on one of these channels.  Jack is very knowledgeable about the north side of Fort Worth and was able to quickly determine where officers were in relation to the areas they were needed and was able to organize chaos.  His actions helped to ensure citizens received the assistance they needed and officers remained safe. 

PSCII Jack Stokes has also been commended for his ability to utilize the multiple computer programs to find information that could be useful to officers.  On February 22, 2007, he had seen a broadcast advising to be on the lookout for an aggravated sexual assault suspect.  Jack took the initiative to perform some file research and direct officers to an address where they were able to apprehend the suspect.  On January 30, 2007, Jack performed a similar file check to assist an officer in locating the owner of some property that needed to be returned.  Also on June 4, 2007, he performed a file search and was able to provide officers with a burglary suspect’s vehicle information and possible home address.   

Jack Stokes has received recognition for many smaller events too.  He routinely assists the supervisor when busy by answering the media line while still handling his position duties.  Jack volunteers to train new call takers and dispatchers.  New employees have commended Jack for always being willing to answer their questions.  A coworker thanked Jack for his assistance when they were dispatching an extensive pursuit. On one occasion he arrived to work early as usual and found a coworker having car trouble.  Jack immediately went and repaired the vehicle for the employee.  

 PSCII Jack Stokes has been involved with the community.  Jack routinely cared for an elderly friend by mowing her yard, helping around the house, and doing some shopping for her until her recent passing.  He also located some needy families and during the holidays organized fund raisers to assist these families.  When the parents arrived to receive the food and presents that were donated for their families they were very emotional to see just how much had been accomplished.   

I believe it is easy to see why PSCII Jack Stokes is my nomination for the APCO Telecommunicator of the Year award.  Throughout the year his performance is exceptional.  He is a team player and always willing to help.  He is highly regarded by not only his peers but also management of the department.  He provides the citizens and officers of Fort Worth excellent customer service.  Jack emulates the high quality professional this field requires.