Lt. Bret Collier looks ahead as police officers get sworn in on Friday’s Badge Pinning Ceremony. | Greg Fails/The Cougar
The UH Police Department held a Badge Pinning Ceremony in the Student Center South Houston Room on Friday to honor police and security officers hired or promoted over the past year, as well as award commendations.
Police Chief Ceaser Moore led the ceremony introducing award recipients and pinning badges.
“This is a positive event and any chance you get to share positivity with your staff is a good thing,” Moore said. “Anyone who’s worked for me for any amount of time knows I’m demanding, but when you do something that’s worth rewarding, you are rewarded.”
Many officers chose to have their families accompany them onstage to present the award such as Officer Brittaney Harvey.
“It was awesome having my aunt present the award to me,” Harvey said. “My uncle was an officer for 15 years, so it was a proud moment for both of them.”
Alongside pinning badges, Moore awarded several officers for their work in notable cases this year, such as the robbery at Bayou Oaks in August 29, as well as apprehension of nine people during a break in at the Sigma Chi House on October 23.
This year’s ceremony also marked a higher volume of recipients than in previous years.
“Normally we wouldn’t want to see this many officers come in in a year, because it means that we’re down officers, but in this case we got a couple of new positions, which is great for us and the University,” Lieutenant Bret Collier said.
“One significant thing we did this year was adjusting our compensation package to retain officers and we fully intend to see retention increase.”
Along with other accolades, the first ever UHPD Lifesaving Award was granted to Officer Jeremy Niño for his role in stabilizing and saving the life of a former UH student after a suicide attempt off of the East parking garage in April.
“I was just doing my job,” Niño said. “The good man upstairs just put me there at the right time.”
