At the June 19 meeting of the city council, Acting Chief of Police Thomas Kemp presented Michelle Moo-Young as the Greenbelt Police Department’s Civilian of the Year and MPO Michael Eppard as the department’s Officer of the Year for 2016. The awards were first presented last fall at the annual Public Safety Awards Banquet at Greenbelt American Legion Post 136.
Moo-Young and Eppard were also honored on June 15 at the annual awards program of the Police Chiefs Association of Prince George’s County. During this event, the Police Chiefs Association also named Eppard as their Officer of the Year for Prince George’s County.
Kemp first introduced Moo-Young, a 22-year veteran of the department. She began her career as a communications specialist and subsequently became an administrative assistant in the records unit and then an administrative coordinator in the administrative unit. Currently, her core duties include serving as the department’s background investigation coordinator, training coordinator and Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commission liaison.
According to Kemp, Moo-Young’s personnel file contains many letters of commendation and appreciation testifying to her professionalism and her unfailing willingness to go above and beyond assigned duties. Kemp particularly noted her ability to organize meetings and all types of events, saying that whatever the activity, “Michelle is the person you want coordinating and overseeing it.”
Kemp added that somehow, in addition to all her other responsibilities, Moo-Young finds time to contribute to the department by doing undercover work as McGruff the Crime Dog’s trusty partner, Mighty Michelle.
Kemp introduced Eppard by saying that a peek into his personnel file reveals that in his relatively short five years on the Greenbelt force, Eppard, too, has accumulated quite a few letters of appreciation and commendation. One of these cites him for an investigation that removed multiple firearms from area streets through his work with an Eleanor Roosevelt High School student whose life was being threatened. Kemp noted that Eppard has also been a recipient of the Maryland Highway Safety Office’s Impaired Driving Law Enforcement Award as a “top producing officer” in making arrests of those driving while intoxicated.
Read more of this story in the July 6 News Review.