Officer and Employee of the Month - September

CRYSTEL R. SAMPSON

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

SEPTEMBER 2014

Crystel Sampson has been a polygraph examiner for the Tampa Police Department for over seven years.  Her work ethic is second-to-none.

Over the past year, the Tampa Police Department began the process of enhancing our internship program, which is vital to our local universities as well as our department.  This partnership allows for college students to receive invaluable hands-on training, while the police department is able to cultivate future police officers.  As a result, the program has grown from a handful of interns to well over a dozen. 

Crystel must process the application of each intern, complete their polygraphs, coordinate their schedules, arrange orientations, and serve as their liaison throughout their tenure in program.  Because Crystel has taken on this responsibility with such enthusiasm, the students start their internship off on the right foot.

In addition to her daily responsibilities as a polygraph examiner, Crystel also assists with the time consuming task of completing reserve officer and civilian backgrounds.  She is also frequently called upon to assist with other areas within the Personnel Unit.  When the employee responsible for the front desk is absent, she will cover for her, answering phones and assisting with pulling files or sorting records.  Regardless of the assignment, she does so without complaint.

In recognition of the efficient manner in which she performs all of her responsibilities, Crystel Sampson is the Employee of the Month for September 2014.

OFFICER KRISTIE R. PIERPONT

OFFICER OF THE MONTH

SEPTEMBER 2014

On July 31 2014, the Commission for Florida Accreditation (CFA) On-Site Assessors advised the Tampa Police Department is in compliance with all standards and would be unanimously recommended to the commission for accreditation on October 8, 2014.  While our success in this process lies with the entire department’s hard work and dedication, there is one key individual who played an instrumental role in ensuring our accreditation success.

In December 2013, Officer Kristie Pierpont was assigned light-duty to the Professional Standards Bureau and began her assignment as a team member in the accreditation process.  She worked closely with the accreditation team for over seven months to finalize and prepare our agency for both the mock and final on-site CFA assessments.  This process was a mammoth undertaking, as the last agency on-site accreditation inspection was over five years ago.  In addition, the on-site and accreditation files were through CALEA, which is managed and interpreted completely different than the CFA.  The CFA has 39 chapters and 261 individual standards which each agency must come into compliance with.  The team had to identify and link the applicable subsections of our policies to the applicable standard.  Unlike CALEA, the team did not have foot notes or identifiers already linking these policies.  Moreover, a large number of policies required multiple proofs to prove compliance.  These proofs also had to be located and linked to the applicable standard.

Kristie was specifically assigned to learn the accreditation software and assist with uploading and linking the correct subsection of an existing policy and compliance proofs with the applicable accreditation standard.  This was a monumental task, as she uploaded and linked a majority of the 1,123 documents.  She performed this assignment in exemplary fashion and had the dedication and motivation to ensure her work was properly completed.  She also assisted other team members with their assignments.

Kristie was also assigned the role of the civilian planning position, which is responsible for maintaining the archives on all TPD policies and procedures, preparing and updating revisions, and ensuring our employees have access to the published policies.  While keeping ahead of her accreditation tasks, Kristie accepted this new assignment with great enthusiasm.  She not only began to organize the files, but also assisted in the development and revisions of the policies.   She was responsible for the revisions of over 30 policies in preparation for our accreditation.  She utilized her tenure as a patrol officer to augment her ability in recommending revisions.  She then trained the new employee on this position.

In recognition of her outstanding performance and the instrumental role she played in the department’s successful accreditation process, Officer Kristie Pierpont has been selected as  the Officer of the Month for September 2014.