YPD recognizes its finest with awards

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

City police gave several awards Thursday at the department’s annual awards luncheon at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church social hall.

Thirty-five officers received letters of commendation, while six received meritorious service awards and seven received awards for five or more gun arrests within a year.

Five of those officers – Jacob Short, Fred Herdman, Christopher Staley, Jimmy Hughes Jr. and Luis Villaplana – were at the ceremony, and the five of them accounted for 35 guns being removed from the streets in 2018, said police Chief Robin Lees.

“This is the proactive stuff we want to see,” Lees said.

Honored with the Investigative Excellence Award was officer Brandon Caraway of the department’s Family Services Investigative Unit, while patrolman Brian Simmons won the Excellence In Police Duty Award for his work in drug investigations over the years with various drug task forces.

Caraway was honored for helping to stop a string of robberies involving the Let Go app, where people would set up appointments to sell their cellular phones, only to be robbed.

In October, Caraway created a fake Let Go account, met a buyer online who acted like the suspect and set up a meet at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School.

Police caught two people who grabbed a cellphone from an undercover officer posing as the seller. As the two ran away, they were caught by other officers who set up a perimeter, Lees said.

Also today, Detective Sgt. D.P. Scott, head of the crime lab and an officer for more than 25 years, will be retiring.