City recognizes officer Babiarz

An early start has paid off for Daniel Babiarz in his pursuit of his career in law enforcement.

It has worked out well for the Fallon Police Department, too.

Babiarz, a veteran of more than three years on the FPD force, was recognized as Employee of the Quarter Tuesday night during the city council’s regularly scheduled meeting.

This is more than a job to Babiarz, a 2007 Churchill County High School graduate. Call it a labor of love.

“Absolutely; I love going to work every day,” he said, flashing a wide grin. “I think it’s the perfect job … I would do this without getting paid.”

During the Employee of the Quarter presentation, Mayor Ken Tedford Jr. observed that Babiarz was introduced to law enforcement at age 14 in 2002 through the Explorer program. During his time as an Explorer, he documented more than 1,700 hours doing ride-alongs, working at special events and attending training functions.

“That was a point in my life where I was inspired to be a police officer,” he said. “It gave me insight of what the job entails and those hours, I learned what I wanted to do.”

After graduating from CCHS, Babiarz began work with FPD as a Police Service Assistance, which provided an opportunity to gain experience in dispatching, learning evidence procedures, registering sex offenders, handling bad check cases and many other police department functions.

Babiarz went on to obtain an Associate Arts degree in Criminal Justice from Western Nevada College and joined FPD in November 2009.

“Which is one of the main reasons why we push so much to have a community college here; the training helped Daniel,” Tedford said. “His ultimate goal was to become a police officer and in July 2009 he attended the police academy; he did an excellent over there and was selected by his peers as the top cadet.”