Community Policing Bureau - Garden Grove

In January 2011, Chief Kevin Raney implementedthe new Chief’s Coin for Merit community outreachprogram. The program encourages PoliceDepartment employees to give a commemorativeChief’s Coin for Merit challenge coin to membersof the Garden Grove community who performextraordinary acts of kindness or bravery.Police officers are trained to protect thecommunity by looking for people breakingthe law. The challenge coin program, however,encourages officers and other Departmentemployees to recognize people who go out oftheir way to do the right thing. Each member ofthe Garden Grove Police Department is given twocoins at the beginning of the year; one to keep andthe other to give to a deserving citizen. Each time anemployee gives out a coin they write a brief descriptionof the circumstances involved, and are given anothercoin to award the next deserving community member.Chief Raney reads each description, and invites recipients toattend an appreciation dinner in their honor at the end ofthe year.The first coin awarded under the new program was presented to Jose Torre, Sr., father of Army Specialist-and Garden Grovenative-Jose Torre, Jr. In January 2011, Officer Jason Perkins was part of the motorcade that escorted Specialist Torres’ remainsto Riverside National Cemetery, after he was killed in combat in Iraq. Officer Perkins, on behalf of the entire Department,presented the coin to Mr. Torre as a small gesture to honor his son’s sacrifice for our country.According to Chief Raney, “[the coin program] is the Garden Grove Police Department’s way of saying ‘Thank You’ to ourcommunity heroes who put their own safety and concerns aside to help make our community a safer and better place to live.It’s a unique honor that each of them should be very proud of—I know I am.”Chief Raney designed the inaugural coin, however, Police Department employees will be encouraged each year to submitdesigns for the next year’scoin. Officer Jason Perkins designed the 2012 Chief’s Coin for Merit, which was unveiled at the firstannual Chief’s Coin for Merit appreciation dinner.8