Another Resident Honored by “COIN” Program
By Editor at September 11, 2023 | 9:30 am | Print
The consistent, effective investigation, prosecution, and reduction of crime cannot be accomplished by the police without the support and cooperation of the citizens. The COIN program (Community Officer Investment Network), aims to reward and recognize members of the community who have made significant contributions to an incident that might not have been resolved successfully without the citizen’s participation. The COIN program involves the issuance of challenge coins to our officers that they can present to individuals who meet this criterion. The Police Department will publicize each success story in hopes of strengthening our network of partners.
The COIN program aims to educate citizens of their obligation to the community and the shared responsibility for its welfare. Our department seeks to further the acceptance of these duties through recognition of those citizens whose actions have contributed to the accomplishments of the department’s mission or the safety of the community. We believe that a small investment in our community can have a big impact on public safety and crime reduction.
All Berlin officers have been issued a challenge coin that may be presented to a citizen when the officer feels that the citizen has made a significant contribution to an incident that might not have been successfully resolved without the citizen’s participation.
On August 26, 2015, Officer. Tim Bradle took a complaint from a distraught woman who had lost her wallet, containing valuable and personal information, which may have been left on the roof of her car at the Valero Gas Station on the Berlin Turnpike. The woman was upset because the wallet contained not only her money, credit cards and debit cards, but her Connecticut ID and college ID cards. The woman explained she was leaving for college in Maine tomorrow and she would have no time to replace her ID before leaving for school out of state.
Later that afternoon Thalia Berardozzi came to the police department to turn over a wallet she found in the roadway on the Berlin Turnpike. Berardozzi told Officer Aimee Krzykowski that she had seen other cars drive over the wallet. Once she realized what it was, she stopped to retrieve it from the road. Berardozzi had come to the police department hoping to return the wallet to its owner.
The wallet was inspected and found it to be intact; all money, credit cards, checks, ID’s etc were present. Officer Krzykowski contacted the owner who was overjoyed not only that someone had found her wallet, but that it was intact. She was relieved she would be able to leave for school with her ID’s.
Officers Bradle and Krzykowski met with Berardozzi and presented her with a BPD COIN as appreciation for her kind and honest actions. Even though returning a found wallet seems to be a simple act, it was meaningful to the owner who was extremely grateful for the honesty of a stranger.
