Officer Kristin Healy: 2016 Brookline Police Officer of the Year

BROOKLINE, MA — Each year for the past seven years one Brookline Police officer is recognized because they epitomize the work the Brookline Police Department is trying to do by way of their actions on - and sometimes off - the job. This year the department is recognizing Officer Kristin Healy as the 2016 Police Officer of the Year. Healy is the first woman officer to receive the award, according to the police chief.

"This nomination came from her peers. That says a lot," said Police Chief Dan O'Leary of the panel of Brookline Police officers who sit down at the beginning of the year each year to look over the commendations all of the officers have received. Based on those commendations, the panel - made up of officers from various ranks and departments - makes a recommendation on who they think should receive the award.

"I wasn't surprised," said O'Leary. "She's very active and does a lot for the community. She's a fully trained member of the [Crisis Intervention Team] - almost since its inception and that shows with how she deals with situations," he said. He described Healy as compassionate and trustworthy, noting she taught the RAD the rape aggression defense classes in schools and participates in the basketball/police program.

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Healy helped women involved in two separate human trafficking cases in Brookline in the past year, she also helped save the life of a man who was choking at a restaurant while she was visiting New York City off duty. Add to that, she was among the first officers to respond to the shooting stabbing incident in early 2016 and worked with officers to provide emergency medical services, including a life saving tourniquet to a gunshot victim.

"She did all this and she got a masters degree from Lowell at the same time. She's pretty impressive. She just goes about doing her job and the way she goes about doing her work she gets people to trust her." Including, he said, a woman who was on a windowsill close to committing suicide. Healy was key in saving that woman's life.

"She very well deserves this award," he said.

On Jan. 27, when she heard an officer come over his radio and report he was at the St. Paul Street apartment building and there was blood all over the entry walls, she didn't even have to think about where she was going next.

She shot over there after serving a warrant in her plain clothes. In her Duke sweatshirt and bullet proof vest she was among the first three officers to make their way up the staircase to the door, guns drawn, hearts beating.

They found a man, bleeding severely. Healy was the one who ran back to the car to get the tourniquet, unraveling it on the way up the stairs. Her colleague put it on the man, and doctors said later it saved his life.
And that’s one of her favorite parts of the job.

“I get to help people. It’s super selfish cause it makes me feel good," she said recalling it later, as the TAB reported.

Recognition is not Healy's favorite thing, she told Patch recently. Read more about Healy in this great article in the TAB, Life in a Bulletproof Vest:

Officer Bobby Teahan was awarded Police Officer of the Year 2015.

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Photos by Jenna Fisher/ Patch Staff