Mount Prospect names Giera police officer of the year

Bartek Giera has been named Mount Prospect Police Department's officer of the year. He was honored at a recent village board meeting, along with three runners-up.

Police Chief Tim Janowick said Giera joined the department 2½ years ago.

He serves as a foreign language translator, speaking Polish, and also works as a breath test operator. But it was his ability to capitalize on seemingly routine traffic stops that lifted him to the top among his peers in 2016.

Janowick cited several highlights, including one arrest where the offender had run a stop sign and was found to have nearly 25 grams of cannabis in his car, and another where an offender with a speeding violation was found in possession of 33 pills containing methadone.

In another case, after a vehicle was found traveling with one headlight, Giera recovered stolen identification cards and credit cards that had been

taken in a home invasion in Wilmette hours before. Wilmette police took four suspects into custody, and three of them were charged with burglary.

Another time, while on routine patrol, Giera saw a driver texting while driving. He honked his horn, and the driver held up a Mason jar that turned out to be filled with cannabis. A search of the car yielded 54 grams of cannabis, drug paraphernalia and 21 individually packaged square tablets that tested positive for LSD.

Three runners-up also were honored.

Officer Maureen Kerrigan, who has been with the department since 1989 and serves as a training officer, was lauded for performing CPR on a man who, it turned out, had overdosed. The man was taken to a hospital and survived. In addition, he said, she helped officers get acclimated

to a new electronic report writing system.

Officer Nick Mavraganis, who has been with the department since 2012, was commended for his work with the special operations unit, which focuses on gang enforcement and hot-spot crime activity. The highlights included apprehending suspects who had been chasing juvenile victims with bats on South Busse Road. The offenders turned out to belong to a local gang. With the aid of social media and other agencies, one adult and six juvenile offenders were arrested on charges that included aggravated assault, battery and mob action. In addition, he discovered the suspects in a series of portable lavatory fires in local parks.

Investigator Alison Teevan, a 10-year veteran of the force, was recognized for her expertise in financial enterprise crime investigations. Janowick mentioned one case that focused on the use of re-encoded credit cards to purchase gift cards that are, in turn, used to obtain merchandise at retail stores. Last year, someone purchased $500 in fraudulent gift cards at a local Wal-Mart. He said Teevan connected the dots, after hearing that Glencoe had a similar case.

Eventually, she uncovered evidence that the suspect had redeemed in 1½ years around $67,000 in gift cards. After uncovering evidence using video surveillance and receiving the cooperation of another suburban police department, she executed search warrants on his bank accounts and residence, seizing $17,000 from the accounts and seizing $9,000 in unused gift cards and fraudulently purchased items including cellphones, cameras and iPads from the house. This led to charges including identity theft and money laundering.