Bruce Morrison Deputy of the year
Nominated by Captain Steven Johnson
The Deputy of the Year award is frequently given to outstanding Deputies who not only performed above and beyond in one act but made it their mode of operation throughout the entire year. Inv. Dobler is no exception to this. There are too many cases to talk about each one in which he went above and beyond, personally and professionally, while helping people or solving criminal cases. A snapshot of this is the 234 criminal felony cases he was assigned in 2009. Some detectives may go an entire career without being assigned that many cases to work, especially since they were all felony cases and many with suspects. Inv. Dobler worked very hard to achieve an amazing 52% clearance rate.
The national average for clearing Index One crimes is 21%. Some detectives could simply clear more cases by weeding out the easy ones. Inv. Dobler consistently did not do this and worked every case as far as he could, without worrying about statistics, but instead being more concerned with the victim and justice.
One small example of Inv. Dobler’s abilities is a case where he was called to respond to a rash of vehicle burglaries. Inv. Dobler quickly assessed up the situation and took action. Dep. Justin Biggs was the responding Deputy and also did a great job helping to identify one of the suspects. After lengthy interrogations, Inv. Dobler obtained confessions from three different suspects. In all, three suspects were charged with several felony counts of vehicle burglary, sixteen vehicles burglaries were solved in three different counties and 131 items that were stolen were recovered by Inv. Dobler and returned to the victims.
Inv. Dobler volunteers his time for many more tasks than just being an Investigator. He is an active member and part of the entry team for the Belleville/Sheriff Special Response Team, works with the FBI Cybercrime Taskforce, is in charge of the department’s surveillance equipment and technical aspects, and assists with important equipment maintenance for Investigations, DTU and Street Crimes Unit. He is always the first to volunteer to assist other departments with investigations and interviewing. One wonders how he finds time after all of those tasks and duties to also be a coach for his son’s baseball team and assist his immediate and extended family in many ways. All of the above his does without being asked.
Inv. Matthew Dobler started at this department as an Explorer Scout, Patrol Deputy, Street Crimes Unit and now an Investigator. He has shown excellence in everything he does and is certainly deserving of the V. Bruce Morrison Deputy of the Year Award for 2010.
