Petaluma Detective Named Sonoma County Police Officer Of Year

PETALUMA, CA — Petaluma police Detective Patrick Gerke has been selected as the Sonoma County Police Officer of the Year for 2018, the Petaluma Police Department announced Thursday. Gerke, a 22-year veteran of Petaluma PD, was chosen for the honor by the Sonoma County Law Enforcement Chief’s Association and will be honored March 9 at the Exchange Club of Santa Rosa’s 71st Annual Crime Prevention Dinner.

The honor comes after Detective Gerke was selected by Petaluma PD as its 2018 Officer of the Year. His nomination was then submitted to the County Chief’s Association to be considered for the countywide award.

Although Gerke has been serving the Petaluma community as a police officer since 1997 — except for a brief stint in 2002 as a Placer County sheriff's deputy — his performance since July 2016 when he was assigned to the investigations team is what has earned him this honor.

"Detective Gerke has distinguished himself as a truly dedicated investigator with a reputation for thorough investigations and for not leaving any stone unturned," wrote Detective Sgt. Paul Gilman in nominating Gerke. "Watching him as a lead investigator on protocol cases has impressed me and he has demonstrated an exhaustive energetic drive, especially at the onset of these investigations."

Gerke was the senior detective on the team when Gilman took command in January 2017. As promotions and transfers occurred, the sergeant found himself with one senior detective and three new detectives who had to be fully trained — something that typically takes more than a year to accomplish with all the necessary schooling.

Petaluma police Chief Ken Savano said because of this training challenge, Gerke was "called upon to not only be the lead detective on all major cases and officer-involved shootings, but he somehow found the time to mentor and develop his fellow detectives while balancing a tremendous and sensitive case load — a case load so great, that it would only be shadowed by the Polly Klaas investigation from 1993."

With Gerke's leadership, and the support of Sgt. Gilman, he and his fellow detectives managed a case load of more than 30 active cases.

"As we completed 2018, these detectives continue to manage a case load of more than 20 cases each, none of which even involve property crimes, all of which deal with the worst cases of people doing horrific things to men, women, children and seniors," Savano said. "Detectives are forced to investigate situations most people could never even imagine."

Chief Savano continued by saying:

"Although the lion’s share of his workload was initiated in 2017 as our detectives were called to investigate officer involved shootings and in-custody deaths for our allied law enforcement partners under a county-wide protocol, he carried this work from 2017 into 2018.

"It is the volume of work he was already carrying and the new cases he was assigned this past year that is so remarkable. During 2018, he was assigned 26 new cases, along with multiple new protocol investigations. In 2018 he was assigned and investigated cases involving human trafficking, attempt homicides, sexual assaults of children and adults alike, child pornography, domestic violence, elder abuse and major property crimes including forgery and burglaries. He has been commended by members from the Redwood Children’s Center for his compassion and excellence in taking care of the most vulnerable victims we deal with in law enforcement.

"In addition to the above listed cases, he was assigned as the primary detective in a total of 63 cases during the year. The cases ranged from robbery, sexual assaults, human trafficking and domestic violence cases.

"Despite a stressful case load managed by a team of four detectives that should be twice as large, this detective has never missed an opportunity to stop and help less senior officers who aspire to be better investigators and hopefully one day able to call themselves a detective. He has always realized that leadership means you positively influence those around you to be better and inspire them to learn and develop the skills necessary to step in and take over for him when he moves on to his next assignment. A true steward of his position, he also realizes it is his responsibility to our profession and our mission to leave the investigations team better than it was when it was given to him.

"He exemplifies our mission of working with our community to provide professional police services. Through his actions and his words he has demonstrated the highest level of compassion for victims as well as suspects, always giving everyone voice, being neutral, treating everyone with dignity and respect, and always being trustworthy and having the goodwill of others in mind before himself.

"He has been a constant example of our performance principles of leadership, professionalism, teamwork, community, organizational excellence and a winning attitude."

This marks the second year in a row a Petaluma officer has been honored with the distinction of being named Sonoma County Police Officer of the Year. Petaluma police Officer Mike Page received the honor for 2017 for his DEA Task Force service in taking down an international smuggling ring.