Fredericksburg Police Officer Dave Reilly Gets 'Officer of the Year'

Fredericksburg Police Officer Dave Reilly and the department's spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe brought home top honors after an awards ceremony Feb. 1.

Reilly responded to 1,830 events in 2011, 823 of which were self-initiated. He was also the primary unit on 1,003 events. The department said Reilly "consistently provides direction and training to his co-workers in drug interdiction skills and serves as an example for other officers through proactive policing by engaging suspicious circumstances and people and is typically among those who have the highest number of monthly police actions."

Reilly has been the department's only canine officer lately and the new "K9 Power Shift" unit created last March brought a record number of drug arrests over a six-month period.

"In addition to his normal duties, Officer Reilly constantly volunteers to work on B-side when they are short," the department stated on the Facebook page.

Natatia Bledsoe, the department's public information officer, won "Employee of the Year." She earned "Employee of the 2nd Quarter" for completing an annual report for the department, as well as coordinating the popular Citizen's Academy, which is starting again this month.

"Ms. Bledsoe handled several press inquiries for the city’s Fire Department and volunteered to work on a committee with the Assistant City Manager to review results of a survey that dealt with quality of life issues in Fredericksburg and citizen satisfaction with city services," the department stated. "Natatia also spent six weeks supervising and mentoring an intern on a project that researched the effects of the city’s homeless population on the resources of the Police Department, court system and the jail."

This summer had three unusual events—an earthquake, hurricane and a microburst—all within a few days, and Bledsoe shared information with the media and local residents through social media.

"In early December, Natatia defended the actions of officers and the fire department on her blog by fully explaining the details surrounding the drowning of dog that had been left chained to a tree," the department stated.