Congratulations to Officer Richard Whitt, #9934, who was selected as the 16th winner of the Theodore Roosevelt Award.  The award will be presented during a ceremony held today at 2:00pm in the Media Conference Room at police headquarters.

The Theodore Roosevelt Award was created for officers who have “ overcome an adversity whether injury, illness or other disability, and who have rendered, and continue to render, outstanding and praiseworthy service to the Dallas Police Department.” Sergeants Charles Young and Zack Kerr jointly submitted Officer Whitt for this award and in their nominating memo detailed the events of November 28, 2010, when Officer Whitt was critically injured during an ambush.

Whitt had been shot three times by a sniper wielding a rifle in an apartment complex at 1170 N. Prairie Creek Road during an Active Shooter call. Three surgeries and 134 days of initial recovery time later, Officer Whitt was able to return to work in the Fusion Center. In his assignment in the Fusion Center, Officer Whitt has distinguished himself by developing a way for officers to find a specific apartment on a satellite map.

He collected all apartment addresses and individual apartment numbers which were then geo-coded for the dispatching system. Officer Whitt has also become an in house expert on the Sovereign Citizens and home grown extremist movements. He has developed presentations for both the Basic and In-Service academies. See the memo below which details the attack, the long road to recovery and Officer Whitt’s work since sustaining this injury.