National Criminal Enforcement Association recently recognized a unit of the Warsaw Police Department for its “outstanding” efforts. Chief of Police Scott Whitaker told the City of Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety at its meeting Friday morning that the WPD Narcotics Unit received an award from the NCEA while at the National Interdiction Conference in Reno, Nev., in March. The 2015 Specialized Narcotics Unit of the Year award was given for the WPD Narcotic Unit’s outstanding efforts in pursuing the criminal element as it relates to narcotics. The efforts include working with other agencies and furthering investigations to the fullest extent, Whitaker said. Additionally, the WPD was recognized for the “Largest Street Level Prescription Medication Seizure,” according to information provided. Offers in the unit include Detective Sgts. Paul Heaton, R.J. Nethaway and Brad Kellar. “I thought it was something that needed to be recognized to the board,” Whitaker said. Kellar said he first came into contact with NCEA in 2004 and since then has regularly attended different types of training it offers. He explained that criminal interdiction is typically law enforcement making traffic stops trying to intercept crime – whether it’s in progress, has happened or is about to occur. As an example, recently WPD made its biggest cocaine seizure in its history out on U.S. 30 where it got 44 pounds of cocaine because of criminal interdiction. The Specialized Narcotics award is a recent one the NCEA started giving out, Kellar said. “NCEA was giving a lot of awards for the types of interdictions I was talking to you about, but they wanted to kind of expand upon that, and they understood we have a lot of guys that were doing things unconventionally, plain clothes type of investigations. So they wanted to shed light on that as well, so that’s where the award came from,” Kellar said. While NCEA is a national organization, Kellar said not every department and not every state is involved, but a majority of the states are represented in the membership. He thanked the city for allowing the officers to attend training like they receive through the NCEA. “We’re humbled by the opportunity to get that type of training. And I want people to know that we put that training to the forefront of what we’re doing. A great byproduct of our involvement with NCEA is the ability to network,” Kellar said. He said it means a lot to officers to go to those kind of trainings. Later in the meeting, the BOW approved hirings and promotions, including promoting Heaton to lieutenant detective, effective Sunday. His bi-weekly pay will be $2,113.33.
