A proud tradition
of excellence

2/2/2007

The Novi Police Department earned a traffic safety award this week, one of only 8 departments in the state to do so. It's yet another example of the outstanding job our police department does year after year.

In fact, excellence isn't new to Novi PD. It's a proud tradition that started a half-century ago.

Founding the Novi Police Department in 1954, Chief Lee BeGole instilled into our police department the importance of education, training and professionalism. A highly educated man himself (he holds a law degree), BeGole lead by example for many years. Novi was the first department in the area to require a four year college degree.

Chief Doug Shaeffer took over upon BeGole's retirement, and the department continued to grow and serve the community with excellence. Novi was one of the first police departments to have in-car laptop computers and life-saving AEDs under his tenure.

Just last weekend, the Novi Police saved a resident using an in-car AED. It was the second save for the officer involved, and was made possible through the foresight of our police department's leadership over the years. We're pretty sure two families are very pleased with such foresight.

Today, the third generation, Chief David Molloy, is at the helm. A career cop who started on patrol in Novi, Molloy continues the tradition of excellence as evidenced by the department's most recent award this week.

It was through Molloy's staff's commitment that a decade old murder case was recently closed, and an ongoing investigation into a drug cartel is netting the city millions in forfeiture funds.

We the People are very pleased we have such an excellent police department - a department that has been recognized for half a century as one of the premier departments in the State of Michigan, and even in the nation.

This is only possible because of the values instilled by Chief BeGole a half-century ago. We are pleased that those who followed him carried on this tradition of excellence. Education, training and professionalism continue to this day to be the foundation of our fine police department.

So to all of Novi's finest, retired and active, we say thank you and keep up the good work!