Secaucus Police Officer Christopher Doxbeck received two of the highest awards that can be given to a police officer in Secaucus for two dramatic arrests in made over the last two years.
“You might say that he is police officer of the year,” said Police Chief Dennis Corcoran during a ceremony on May 13 that honored Doxbeck and other officers for outstanding activities.
On Dec. 10, 2000, Doxbeck chased and apprehended a car theft suspect who had rammed his car in an attempt to get away. This, according to his citation, was done without injury to the civilians or the suspect.
On Jan. 11, 2002, Doxbeck arrested four suspects and recovered stolen property including a motor vehicle and a fully loaded handgun.
“In one incident, he exited his vehicle and chased the suspect on foot, crossing Route 3 – something he won’t be doing again, by the way – climbed over a fence and apprehended the suspect,” Corcoran said. “Chris gives 110 percent, and it a pleasure to honor him for his job well done.”
In other awards issued, police officers Roderick Aninipot and Edward Zloty received Meritorious Duty Awards for saving the life of a 73-year-old man who’d suffered a heart attack on Oct. 24, 2001.
The two officers responded to the Radisson Hotel and found the man was not breathing and “he had no pulse,” said Captain Richard Scalzo. “They used the training they received on the job and at the academy and brought him back.”
The old man stopped breathing several times up to the point at which the EMTs arrived, and the officers maintain their CPR. The old man was eventually transported to Meadowlands Hospital, where he later recovered.
Police officers Jude Smith, Jerome Mercado, Charles Firtion and Will Petryshn received Chief Unit Citations for work done on Feb. 28, 2002 in catching burglars who had targeted numerous commercial buildings.
Corcoran said the officers helped catch people who were committing burglaries to commercial buildings.
“The burglars would set off alarms, wait until the police checked the place, then go back for a quick score,” Corcoran said. “They tired it once too often.”
The citations said the officers showed “excellent judgement in detaining the burglars” before all the information was ascertained.
“A less experienced officer might have released the burglar, and it would have been difficult to connect them to the crime,” Smith’s citation read. “Smith found the stolen merchandise where the burglar had dumped it.”
Police officers Francis Cotter and Brian Cantor were awarded Meritorious Citations for work they did on April 16, 2001 in helping catch burglars. Not only did they provide information to the department while they were off duty; they also blocked off a potential escape route that the burglars might have used.
“There burglars were a real thorn in the department’s side,” Scalzo said. “We needed a break to catch them, and these officers provided it.”
Police officers Michael Torres and Carlos Govenechea received the Police Chief’s Unit Citation for “using their initiative” to get involved in an investigation of a crime. As a result of their intervention and supplying of critical information about a Jan. 11, 2002 event, suspects were arrested in the burglarizing and stealing of cars.
New award named after former deputy chief
Because the Secaucus Police Department previously had no award for non-police officers or police officers from out of town, the awards committee – which included Corcoran, Scalzo and PBA representative George Miller, established a new award named after former Deputy Police Chief Nicholas F. Zaccario.
Zaccario, who died at 81 in January, served on the Secaucus Department for 33 years. A staunch believer in law and order, he was particularly effective in combating drug-dealing in Secaucus during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Corcoran said all three offices on the awards committee had come into the department at a time when Zaccario was still active.
“Deputy Chief Zaccario was known for three things, love of his community, love of the Secaucus Police Department and love of his family,” Corcoran recalled.
Zaccario’s widow, Franca, attended the awards ceremony, and said Corcoran had approached her with the idea. She said she was honored by the thought.
Deputy Mayor John Reilly, who serves as the Town Council’s liaison to the Police Department, is the first to receive the award. Reilly was honored for following a stolen car in Nov. 2000, which eventually led to the arrest and conviction of the carjacker. Reilly, was getting gas at the time the report came over the police radio, said the Police Department’s quick response to the crime scene and the department’s ability to translate and transmit the vital information quickly allowed him to pursue the criminal.
Reilly said he was honored at being the first to receive the award but credited the police department’s professionalism for making it possible.
Also honored with this award were Bergen County Police officer Richard Bandor and his K-9 partner Enzo the dog, for their part in another carjacking. Enzo, the dog, sniffed out one of the perpetrators who was hiding behind a house.
Bandor got a plaque; the dog got dog biscuits.
“We also gave Enzo a plaque in case he has a doghouse somewhere where he can hang it,” Corcoran said.
Enzo and Bandor were not on hand to receive their awards.
In his remarks about the officers and the awards, Mayor Denis Elwell said “The Sept. 11 disaster woke up most of the world to what men and women in uniform are all about.”
He said that when people at work in the Twin Towers were running out of the building to avoid the disaster, police, fire EMT and other emergency people were running up into the building to help the others out.
“I have no doubt that if those buildings had been located in Secaucus, our emergency personnel would do the same thing,” Elwell said.