Fair Lawn Detective Wins National Law Enforcement Award
Detective Jeff Welsh has been honored as the VFW National Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.
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Detective Jeff Welsh, who in February was named the District 2 (Bergen County) Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of New Jersey, was honored again Thursday for his first-rate police work.
This time, the VFW bestowed the National Law Enforcement Award upon Welsh, who was entered in the nationwide running because of his earlier selection within Bergen County.
"We, the members of Fair Lawn PBA #67, are very proud of Jeff Welsh," PBA president and fellow Detective David Boone said in a statement. "He has served the Borough of Fair Lawn with great distinction for over 22 years and this is a well deserved recognition of his excellent police work. The Borough leaders and the residents should take great pride in having such an exceptional officer serving them."
Detective Lt. Michael Uttel also applauded Welsh for the distinction, and said he was very deserving of the award.
"There's not a guy down here that works harder than him and they all work very hard," Uttel said back in February.
Known within the department for his understated, yet authoritative manner, Welsh is a stickler for details who specializes in fraud investigations and often works with the Secret Service and other government investigative agencies.
Welsh joined the detective bureau in 1999, after working in patrol for nine years, and has since taken on a mentoring role to the junior detectives, who frequently come to him with questions.
In an email, Boone called him "first and foremost a team player."
"Although he carries a very heavy caseload," Boone wrote, "he will always drop what he is doing to assist other officers or detectives in an investigation."
When approached back in February after winning the county award, Welsh said he was honored to be recognized by the VFW, but quickly shifted the focus to his colleagues within the department.
“My success here is based upon my surroundings," he said, "the officers that I work with."
Welsh said he loves both patrol work and detective work, but finds that making an arrest following an investigation is more rewarding.
“When you're out on the street, it's what you see is what you get,” he said. “Here, you get a piece of paper that gives you a bunch of what ifs and you gotta put it together and make the best of what you can. You're not given too many tools other than this (pointing to his head) and your hands."
For Welsh, the best part of his job is getting to serve the residents of Fair Lawn.
“When you can look a victim in the eye and tell 'em, ‘Hey we got 'em. We picked up that bad guy.’ There's nothing more rewarding than that,” he said. “It's not about the paycheck.”
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ImNotSurprised
7:39 am on Saturday, June 16, 2012
Where are the PD brass?
Why is it that there is no support for such dedicated individuals?
There isnt even a statement of support!
Inexcusable! !!!!!!
*
9:28 am on Saturday, June 16, 2012
Detective Welsh is one of the hardest working cops Fair Lawn has. Our residents should feel privileged to have such a man on the watch!
His work ethic is something to be admired
Bruce Knuckle
10:37 am on Saturday, June 16, 2012
Congrats to Detective Welsh. Zak, did you even try to get a comment from the poor excuse of a police chief? or for that manner, any of the self serving councilmorons? This is what is wrong with FL. Not a word from any of them.
Go Figure
12:21 pm on Saturday, June 16, 2012
Now this is the kind of news I want to hear about our police department. Our Borough officers are great, hard working officers and have not gotten the recognition they deserve. Keep up the great work and CONGRATULATIONS Detective Welsh.
FL SHAMEFUL
12:29 pm on Saturday, June 16, 2012
Way to go Detective Welsh, GREAT JOB!!!! How Pathetic that not one of the IDIOTS from the FLPD was there to congratulate you on your accomplishment. Where was the Chief or the Captain hiding? This is the second award that a Police Officer received from an organization outside of Fair Lawn. The first was from the Bergen County 200 Club which was given to Sgt Mike Messina and Officer Ken Cavanaugh for almost getting killed and now this award. What is WRONG with the FLPD and the Borough of Fair Lawn for NOT recognizing the GREAT police officers that we have here in town. I read in the newspapers that the Police Officers have NO CONFIDENCE in their Chief and all I have to say to that is ....... WHY THE HELL IS THAT GUY STILL EMPLOYED? STOP looking the other way Council not one cop marched behind that so called Chief in the Memorial Day Parade, that wasn't enough for you?
GREAT JOB DETECTIVE WELSH!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
"C"
12:29 pm on Saturday, June 16, 2012
Hey didn't he play " Sonny" in. A Bronx tale
Tony Dadika
3:27 pm on Saturday, June 16, 2012
Great Job Jeff
Uncle T
@ zak
3:32 pm on Monday, June 18, 2012
first off congrats Detective Jeff Welsh for your well deserved award- and thank you for your commitment. detective welsh is a great example for our community.
zak- it seems like the question of why rose is still our police chief keeps popping up and no one gets anything close to an answer. we have millionso of dollars inlawsuits and the only people being punished are the residents and not the people responsible for the lawsuits.
i was extremely disturbed when i read an article that stated name calling and childish jokes are common place at the police station.
zak- you do a great job and im sure it is not easy, but i dont understand how a major issue like this is getting swept under the rug. we have great officers in town and they deserve a chief they respect and want to work for.
if i cost my company millions in lawsuits and everyone a managed expressed no confidence in me i would have been fired immediately.
i dont want to assume any conspiracies but im beginning to think rose has some relationship with the manager/council where they will not let him go no matter how poor of a job he is doing. that is the only reason i can see him remaining chief with his track record
Dorothy Kilgallen
4:03 pm on Monday, June 18, 2012
I have never heard anything about the chief being brought up on disciplinary actions thru all these years, several managers and a rotating cast of councilpeople. Suddenly he's no good? I say bullS&^T.
@ zak
4:14 pm on Monday, June 18, 2012
dorothy- im confused, what is bulls**t; that rose is doing a poor job or that he remains chief?
suddenly he's no good? have you followed any of the news or lawsuits the past few years that our officers pressed against him. and that when they asked our officers the majority had no confidence in our chief. are you comfortable with our officers taking orders from a chief they dont respect and more importantly feel the chief doesnt respect them?
a jury of 12 thought rose did a poor enough job to justicy $500,000. and when the facts were in front of our manager attorney and councel they didnt fight it which would lead one to assume the lawsuits were justified
Bruce Knuckle
5:06 pm on Monday, June 18, 2012
@Dorothy...you never heard about it because he is part of the crap pack that runs this town. You call BS, well where the hell have you been for the last 3 years? Then again, its hard to hear when your earlobe deep in the rectum. Its BS that this poor excuse for a police chief fails his force over and over.
Dorothy Kilgallen
12:34 pm on Tuesday, June 19, 2012
sounds like you folks are insiders. has the chief ever been disciplined by the council or manager?
Go Back to Oz
1:39 pm on Tuesday, June 19, 2012
no dorothy they havent and that is the problem!
lets look at the facts dorothy- because clearly you dont have any
-the majority of our officers expressed no confidence in Rose.
-multiple officers have pressed charges on Rose because of harrassment and mistreatment.
-a jury of 12 decided messina should be rewarded 800 k for rose's harassment.
-our attorney, manager, and council decided to settle for 500 k which would let one assume they also believe rose did something wrong and could not fight it.
so dorothy are we to believe that all of our police officers are involved in a conspiracy against rose so they can press charges?
the problem is that these lawsuits are going to cost the town millions. if rose did harass his officers and did a poor job (which the facts and trials seem to show) than he should be held accountable.
so zak- are we ever going to get any information about this subject???
Dorothy Kilgallen
1:46 pm on Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Police are filing lawsuits all over the country, for every little infraction that the rest of the working world puts up with. I wasn't promoted a few times. Didn't sue my employer. Went and got another job.And what happened to the complaint regarding race? That seems to have been resolved????? Or is that still ongoing?
Gabriel Francis
5:19 pm on Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Great work Detective!! Congrats!!