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A Los Alamitos police officer was among 19 others honored this past week at the U.S. Justice Department in our nation’s capital by America’s top law enforcement officer.
For Officer Marc Navarro, the epic award began with an improbable traffic stop near Rossmoor, and the innovative way he handled it, which landed him in the auditorium of the Justice Department on June 5.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland bestowed the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing to law enforcement officers and deputies from 15 jurisdictions across the country for efforts in criminal investigations, field operations, and innovations in community policing.
“Our mission is to uphold the rule of law to keep our country safe and protect civil rights,” said Garland, “but we do not, and we cannot do this work alone. Every day. Law enforcement officers across the country work to protect their communities.”
They forge and maintain strong community ties that are essential to ensuring public safety and they put their lives on the line to make their communities better places to live,” the attorney general said.
“We know that you shoulder the heaviest burden when it comes to protecting your communities. And we are proud to stand next to you and to work alongside you,” he told the 19 officers as he prepared to present each of them with a medal for their distinguished service.
“It is a special honor to recognize officers like today’s awardees, who represent the very best of this noble work,” said Garland.
Navarro attended the ceremony along with his family and Los Al Police Chief Michael Claborn, who nominated him for the award.
Hugh T. Clements, Director of the Office of Community Policing at the Justice Department, said Navarro’s work as a police officer often goes “above and beyond” the call of duty.
“Officer Navarro consistently embraces the concepts of Community Oriented Policing in every aspect of his work. His efforts to go above and beyond in the community frequently make him the recipient of letters of praise and gratitude from the community, whether it’s caring for his colleagues or showing his dedication to the community. Officer Navarro demonstrates the essence of community policing,” said Clements.
In an interview after the ceremony, Navarro said he was extremely honored, even though he was surprised when Chief Claborn told him he had been selected. Navarro was the only recipient from southern California.
“You know, my chief (Claborn) came up to me one day and he told me that I was in the running to win this award and I was like, okay, how like who … who nominated me,” Navarro said he told the Chief.
“I had no idea,” he said. “I guess someone wrote to DOJ,” he said.
Actually, it was a letter that jumpstarted the process, but not directly to DOJ. It all began months ago when Navarro, on patrol, saw a car buzz right through the red light on Katella. “Did you see that,” he said he asked his partner.
Navarro immediately flipped on his lights and gave chase.
“I pulled over a lady with her friend for the traffic violation,” he said. Navarro then did something that earned him among the nation’s highest law enforcement honors.
As the driver waited for the citation, Navarro began writing.
Instead of writing her a ticket, however, Navarro did something akin to a teachable moment.
“I got out my notepad and wrote her a brief note saying, you know, be aware of the signs, the traffic signals,” said Navarro, noting that he also wrote that “I care about your safety and the safety of others.”
“I drew a line at the bottom for her to sign it and put on a happy face emoji and handed it to her. She thought she was getting a ticket,” said Navarro.
What Navarro did not know is that the red-light runner was a lawyer, a former traffic judge and former Mayor of Signal Hill, Carol Churchill, of Rossmoor.
Churchill, in an interview, confirmed the incident and remembered it well.
“I was in the car with my niece. And we were driving home from Subway,” she said, not noticing the light but soon seeing the flashing police lights behind her.
“And I noticed the red light was behind me. And of course, I pulled over as fast as I could and said oh, shoot, I must have done something. And the officer got out of their car, and came up to my side of the car,” she said, “and the officer said something like, do you know that you went through a red light,” Churchill remembered.
“I did,” she wondered. “Because you didn’t even see it. He said, you just really went right through it. I said, oh my god, that was so stupid. I haven’t had a ticket in like a decade or more and you better go write me a ticket,” she told Navarro.
“He says, okay, can I have your driver’s license and insurance blah, blah, blah. So, I handed that to him. Annie (niece), on the other side of the car, and she said the police officer asked my niece ‘Is she okay’? She was, saying her aunt ‘is a really, really, good driver.”
Churchill said she saw the officer (Navarro) “walking up to me, and he’s very stern. He hands me a piece of paper and he goes, ‘I want you to read this, and I want you to sign it.’ And I looked at it says please be more careful when you’re driving. We want you to be safe,” said Churchill, who admits being astonished.
“Oh my god, that is so nice of you. So I signed it. I gave it back to him. And I still can’t believe he did that because I deserved the ticket,” she said.
“And I wrote a letter to the police chief (Chief Claborn),” said Churchill, suggesting his department was demonstrating really good community service.
“He knew I deserved a ticket,” Churchill said she told the Chief, but the officer told me ‘I didn’t give you the ticket because you told me the truth.’”
“That’s a remarkable thing to happen,” she said, when “the police officer goes if you’re honest with me, I’m going to give you a break if you don’t try and pull a fast one on me,” she said.
“So I basically wrote the police chief a letter and told him that I thought that he was doing a good job with creating community policing, which is really important.”
Claborn said recognition by the Attorney General recognizes a concept he has embraced since becoming Chief eighteen months ago.
“I have been the Chief of Police in the City of Los Alamitos for a year and a half. To have our organization recognized by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office for Community-Oriented Policing, in such a short amount of time, has been a humbling experience,”
“My first mandate to the Los Alamitos Police Department, upon my arrival, was to embrace Community Oriented Policing,” the police chief said. “I had personally seen its effects on a community during my tenure with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Santa Ana Police Department,” Claborn told ENE.
“The residents of Los Alamitos are nothing short of amazing. They enjoy raising their families in a safe community that prioritizes academics and youth athletics,” he added.
“Officer Navarro lives Community Oriented Policing, which is evident in his approach to the profession of police work. He has embraced the approach of treating citizens how he would want his family to be treated by law enforcement,” said Claborn.
Navarro, who joined the Los Al Police Department after graduating from Westwood College in Criminal Justice in 2018, said overall, the award has taught him a lesson as well, thinking now “the way I’m doing my work is paying off.”
“You know, being a cop is hard. And you never know if you’re always doing the right thing,” said Navarro. “It’s a hard job. I always do what we call Monday morning quarterbacking. We always debrief on everything that I do and I always think about how I can do better. It’s just one of those things where it’s like, oh, man, winning this award made me feel like I’m actually doing something right.”
