Photo belongs to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office honored their employees with a debut celebratory event in early June.

Sheriff Adam Infante tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the first ever Annual Awards Ceremony took place on June 2nd to recognize seven individuals in their different divisions. He shares the idea behind the celebration was to highlight the incredible work that is done on a daily basis from the employees, and wanted to spend time to properly thank them for their dedication.

“We’re only as good as our employees and our staff. And I think that’s true of any organization, and we are blessed and fortunate to have some of the best (employees) around here in Dallas County.”

Although this is the first awards ceremony, Infante outlines that the plan is to make this a yearly tradition in the spring. He mentions that this year was the exception, because the sheriff’s office was busy with cases, and that’s why it was pushed to June. All the officers that were honored can be found below.

• Deputy of the Year – Nick Merwald
• Dispatcher of the Year – Katie Swanson
• Correctional Officer of the Year – Leah Schettler
• Lifesaving Awards
  • Sergeant Nick Petersen
  • Dispatcher Ashlynn Niedermann
  • Correctional Sergeant Adam Howard
  • Correctional Officer Jessica Lovell