{"id":315583,"date":"2026-05-14T16:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/315583\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T16:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:21:08","slug":"bravery-lifesaving-distinguished-service-oakland-county-law-enforcement-citizens-honored-at-annual-awards-ceremony-the-oakland-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/315583\/","title":{"rendered":"Bravery, lifesaving, distinguished service: Oakland County law enforcement, citizens honored at annual awards ceremony \u2013 The Oakland Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was standing room only in the Board of Commissioners Auditorium on Wednesday for the annual awards ceremony recognizing\u00a0 exemplary efforts by Oakland County law enforcement and staff, as well as local citizens.<\/p>\n

Held during National Police Week, the ceremony\u2019s honors included lifesaving and valor citations, citizen and community service awards, and nine \u201dOf the Year\u201d honors for Oakland County Sheriff\u2019s Office employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, I am proud of the work our team does, but Awards Day during National Police Week gives me a special opportunity to personally thank them and recognize their service in a well-deserved ceremony,\u201d Sheriff Michael Bouchard stated in a news release. \u201cOur deputies and professional staff have faced unimaginable challenges, yet they continue to show up every day with courage, professionalism and an unwavering commitment to protecting this community. I am honored and proud to stand beside them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the Year\u201d awards:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Command Officer of the Year: Sgt. Michael Ritchie, Fugitive Apprehension Team,.
\u2022 Corrections Deputy of the Year: Deputy Bridget Siterlet
\u2022 Road Patrol Deputy of the Year: Deputy Ryan Boucher
\u2022 Investigator of the Year: Det. John Brish
\u2022 Support Services Deputy of the Year: Deputy Charles Johnson
\u2022 Communications Employee of the Year: Kevin Swiatoschik, dispatch specialist shift lead<\/p>\n

\u2022 Employee of the Year: Elizabeth Skwarczewski, OCSO rate and grant coordinator
\u2022 Reserve Deputy of the Year: Reserve Lt. Tom Hart
\u2022 Part-Time Employee of the Year: Chaplain Fadie Gorgies
\u2022 Bravery Citation: Deputy Collin Schafer \u2013 kicked down front door of burning home in Oxford, crawled inside and dragged out a resident who was in danger
\u2022 Distinguished Service Citation: Sgt. Chad Allan<\/p>\n

\"group(from left): Sheriff Mike Bouchard, Oxford Twp. Supervisor Jack Curtis, Oxford Substation Commander Lt. Scott Patterson, Sgt. Ric Meza, Sgt. Eric Dougherty at the annual awards ceremony on May 13, 2026 (photo provided by Oakland County Sheriff’s Office)
\nCitizen awards:<\/p>\n

\u2022 HUB Development Team (Oakland County Information Technology Team): Weidong Fan, David Carter, Steven Erkins, Paul Falinski, Patricia Salter, Steven Jennings
\u2022 Linda Bovensiep
\u2022 Jeffery Richards
\u2022 Amie Vonknorring
\u2022 Donald Springer, Ken Wessel \u2013 Intervened when a deputy was outnumbered by resisting individuals during a traffic stop, leading to arrests.
\u2022 Jimmy Mieczkowski \u2013 Credited with saving the life of resident Diane Major after her lawnmower exploded and her clothing was set on fire<\/p>\n

Other awards:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Citizen, Community Service, Equivalency Bar, Distinguished Service, Livesaving, Meritorious Service, Special Commendation, Distinguished Unit, Disaster Bar citations
\u2022 Fugitive Apprehension Team, Corrections Training Officers, Honor Guard, Pontiac Detective Bureau, Pontiac Community Policing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was standing room only in the Board of Commissioners Auditorium on Wednesday for the annual awards ceremony…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[132110,132109,132108,131029,143,132107,145,144,51002],"class_list":["post-315583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-citizen-citations","tag-exemplary-service","tag-lifesaving","tag-national-police-week","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-county-sheriffs-office-awards","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-sheriff-mike-bouchard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}