Luke Scala, Officer of the Year; Tammy Kirkman, Detention Officer of the Year; Mike Roberson, Top Gun; Mike Szpunar, Community Service; Joseph Alston, Paul Carroll, James Murdock, Shawn Petty, Phillip Richard and Will Summers, all Meritorious Achievement; David Chestnutt, Alyson Gardner, Andre Gipson, Luke Scala, David Scott, Doug Stuart, Sean Szpunar and Amanda Trail, all Appreciation Certificates; and School Resource Officers, Unit Citation.

The Top Gun award is given to the officer with the highest average firearms score. The Community Service award goes to the officer with the highest number of hours performing community-service functions.

Officer of the Year awards are given to a sworn officer and a detention officer. Officers of the Year are voted on by their peers instead of being selected by the administration staff. The Unit Citation is awarded to a unit within the Sheriff’s Office that has performed exceptionally well over the last year.

The following officers were recognized for years of service.

Matthew Meyer, Chris Tipton, Will Summers, Stacey Cook, Maurice Wicker, Tommy Clark, Jarek Payden, Jonathon Hensley, Fred Langley and Ed Fawcett, all for five years of service; Roy Allen, Kevin Carey, Steve Maynor, Daniel Tilley, Doug Stuart, Mike Bullis, Tracy Kelly, Brad Johnson and Mike Roberson, all for 10 years of service; Charles Gardner, 15 years of service, Richard Webster, 20 years of service and Gary Blankenship, 25 years of service.

•  Marisa Leigh Beatty, daughter of Frank and Carolyn Beatty of Chapel Hill, has been named to the Deans List for the fall 2012 at Western Carolina University. Beatty is a pre-nursing major.

•  Meredith Miller, a resident physician at UNC was named as the first Sanders scholar and will be going to Project HOPE’s maternal and child health clinic for one month in March in the Dominican Republic.

•  Eighteen area law enforcement officers and one telecommunicator completed CIT Training, a week-long training in December. The course offers specialized training to officers who may respond to mental health or substance abuse crisis situations. Participating officers receive training in understanding mental illness, intellectual/developmental disabilities, substance abuse, co-occurring disorders, brain theory, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, veterans’ issues, dementia, domestic violence, and the effects of psychotropic medications. The program emphasizes safety first and teaches crisis intervention and verbal de-escalation techniques that reduce the risk of harm to officers and those experiencing the crisis.

The following people, listed by agency completed the course:

Carrboro Police Department – Allison Delaney, Heather Barrett and Kenny Stewart.

Chapel Hill Police Department – Chris Gillum.

Hillsborough Police Department – Nicholas Chelenza and Julius Robertson.

Orange County Sheriff’s Office – Ryan Lloyd, Duke Ashley, Malcolm Hester, Brandon Coats and Zachary Baldwin.

UNC Public Safety – John Carroll, Carmon Douglas, Mike Laffan, Tim Goad and Keith Ellington.

Pittsboro Police Department – David Sartwell.

Please send announcements and photos to chnclerk@newsobserver.com