Officer Daniel Gladney was sitting in the Police Department’s communications room, helping a new dispatcher learn the ropes, when he was summoned to Chief of Police Daniel Posluszny’s office.
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Officer Daniel Gladney was sitting in the Police Department’s communications room, helping a new dispatcher learn the ropes, when he was summoned to Chief of Police Daniel Posluszny’s office.
”It was a Friday night, around 8 p.m. The chief called up to the desk and asked if I could go back to his office. I was thinking, ‘Why is the chief here on a Friday night?’ My heart was pounding,” Officer Gladney recalled.
”Chief Posluszny brought me into his office and sat me down. He basically wanted to congratulate me for being named Police Officer of the Year,” Officer Gladney said.
And that’s how the 28-year-old police officer learned that he was going to be given the Police Chief’s Achievement Award for Outstanding Police Officer of the Year. Officers are nominated by their peers and a committee chooses the winner.
”I know in the grand scheme of things I am still considered one of the newer officers. I was very surprised to be nominated for the Chief’s Achievement Award. It came as a surprise to me that my co-workers thought highly enough of me to select me for this award,” Officer Gladney said, adding that he “would not be where I am” without their help.
Officer Gladney, who has been a police officer for five years, said his time at the Police Department has gone by “pretty fast, it seems like. I feel like I know the job and what I am doing, but (as in) any job, there is room to grow and learn.”
Officer Gladney is the first to admit that he is “living the dream.” He had wanted to be a police officer “for as long as I can remember,” he said. Every day as he walked to school, he would watch the Lawrence Township police officers drive past in their patrol cars.
”I always looked up to them a little bit,” Officer Gladney said.
Upon graduation from Lawrence High School in 2003, he attended Mercer County Community College and studied criminal justice. He got his start at the Lawrence Township Police Department as a communications operator, or dispatcher. Soon, his dream to work as a police officer came true and he moved into a patrol car.
”I like being on patrol,” Officer Gladney said. “You get a little bit of everything when you are out on the road. You get to interact with people on different calls. There are a lot of different things to experience.”
A patrol officer responds to everything, from basic calls for help to a burglary in progress, he said. It is not dull and that is the appeal of working as a patrol officer, he said, adding “you never know what you are going to encounter or come across.”
For the past couple of years, Officer Gladney has been assigned to the overnight shift. He likes that shift because it allows him to be pro-active — to look for things that are out of place or that don’t seem right.
”You look for ‘stops.’ You look for people who are out in the middle of the night. You wonder why they are out so late. A lot of burglaries happen overnight. You drive along the streets and make sure everything looks normal,” he said.
It is that pro-active stance — looking for things that do not appear normal — that led Officer Gladney to put a stop to a series of car break-ins last year.
Officer Gladney was driving around the township when he noticed the interior light was on in a car parked on Irwin Place. He checked the car and found it had been ransacked. He noticed a second car in the same driveway and when he checked on it, he found a thief inside the car.
“It’s a good feeling when you stop somebody (from committing more crimes),” he said. While Officer Gladney enjoys being on patrol, he also likes the investigative side of police work. He often gets information on the street and may try to solve a crime himself. If that is not possible, he passes on the information to the detectives so they can solve it. “I enjoy what I do and where I am right now. It’s work, but it’s what you make it. It’s good to have good people to work with (and) who have helped me in my career. I wouldn’t be where I am without everybody’s help,” he said.