Cinnaminson Police Honor Top Cops

The submitted the following press release:

The Cinnaminson Police Department recently held an awards dinner to acknowledge both Cinnaminson officers and officers from several surrounding departments for outstanding accomplishments over the last several years. These towns included Delran, Palmyra, Riverton, the Burlington County Bridge and Evesham.

A total of 121 awards in several different categories were awarded at a dinner ceremony held at the . Included in these awards was the Officer of the Year award, which was presented to P/O Timothy Obuchowski. Others included Unit Citations, Exceptional Service commendations, Honorable Service, Life Saving, Meritorious Achievement and a Citizens Award.

Significant events over the past several years were screened by a committee of officers from the department who reviewed these incidents and discussed them at great length before deciding what events and which officers were in need of special recognition. All awards including the Officer of the Year award were voted upon by the committee and approved by Director of Public Safety Michael King.

Among the awards were the Officer of the Year which was awarded to P/O Obuchowski for his tireless dedication to maintaining the vehicle fleet including spending countless hours of work on the vehicles on his own time, and being available on an almost 24 hour a day basis should an issue arise. Officer Obuchowski also recently was certified as the Department’s second K-9 officer with his partner ‘Chuck’. Chuck is now a certified Bomb Dog and is available to agencies 24 hours a day as part of a Task Force should he be needed anywhere in the state. Chuck is also just weeks away from being a certified tracking dog and will be able to assist officers in numerous activities once he graduates the NJSP dog school.

A Citizens Award was presented to , a Cinnaminson resident. Mr. Walton is the owner of a scrap yard in Philadelphia, and is responsible for launching the investigation into the thefts of brass military grave markers and flower urns from several local cemeteries including Lakeview in Cinnaminson, New St. Mary’s in Bellmawr, St. Pete’s in Riverside, Monument in Edgewater Park, and Colestown and Locustwood in Cherry Hill. This case led to the recovery of 360 of these items and the arrest of three females, which are pending trial in Burlington County Superior Court.

Det. Andrew Johnson was awarded an Exceptional Duty Award for his investigation into a Sexual Assault, which occurred in a local motel and led to a conviction and State Prison term for the offender.

Among the Unit Citations was an award for P/O Rock, P/O Burns, P/O Bohn, Sgt. Bill Obuchowski, DSG. Covert, Det. Johnson and Cpl. Bourdon of the Evesham PD for their efforts in arresting two subjects from California who were part of a group of six individuals who were removing money from ATM machines with cloned debit card numbers. This arrest to the identity of at least two of the other subjects and led to a wider investigation nationwide, which is now being coordinated by the U.S. Secret Service Chicago Field Office.

Officers Hess, Vittese, Lillagore, Bohn Stoneback and Sgt. McGill were recognized for their efforts with a Life Saving Award for several incidents in which their efforts led to several residents being saved through either CPR or the utilization of a portable defibrillation device.

Have Cinnaminson news of your own to share? Send it to Christina Paciolla at christina.paciolla@patch.com—if you have pictures, even better!