Crime & Safety

Nine-Year Veteran Named Stamford Police Officer of the Year

Midnight shift officer O'Brien was nominated by colleagues and was key in restoring police K-9 Unit after a 25-year absence. O'Brien's K-9 partner "Cooper" is trained to track illegal narcotics.

Stamford Police's Seth O’Brien has been named Officer of the Year. O'Brien, who works the midnight shift with his K-9 partner "Cooper," a six-year old German shepherd, was nominated by a lieutenant and seven sergeants from the midnight patrol, according to a release prepared for the Stamford Police.

“Officer O’Brien is one of the finest officers in this department," said O'Brien's colleagues who nominated him for the honor, adding, "His value to this community and this department cannot be measured by one incident.  His outstanding police work is only outdone by the humble way he goes about it... our department’s K-9 Unit would not be as professional as it is without him.”

O’Brien started in 2004 in the patrol division and has since moved on to the narcotics and organized crime unit, where he is also an eight-year member of the department’s honor guard ceremonial unit. 

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In 2009 O'Brien was one of two officers selected to re-establish the department’s K-9 Unit after a 25-year absence.

Officer O’Brien has a national and state Police K-9 Handler certification and has worked with forces from neighboring towns to train and certify their K-9 teams.   

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"Cooper" specializes in tracking illegal drugs and the release lists the following high-profile investigations and arrests O’Brien and Cooper have accomplished:

  • This past December, Officer O’Brien confronted a known gang member who immediately took off running and threw what was discovered to be a stolen .45 caliber handgun into a storm drain. The gun was recovered and the suspect was arrested.  The gun was determined to have been used in a double shooting weeks earlier.
  • Officer O’Brien and Cooper were called upon by the Greenwich Police Department to assist in finding a man who had threatened to commit suicide. The pair tracked him for hours until Cooper alerted Police to a large garage where the man was lying unconscious in a crawl space.
  • In 2012 they helped capture the fleeing suspect responsible for near fatal injuries to Stamford Police Officer Troy Strauser. Officer O’Brien and Cooper tracked the suspect across I-95 into a large wooden area. The duo finally managed to control the situation and take the suspect into custody after a violent struggle.

Sgt. Joseph Kennedy, President of the Stamford Police Association, said in the release that the FBI has named Stamford as one of America’s safest big cities for the past decade. "The dedication and commitment of Officer O’Brien is what makes Stamford such a positive community for families to live and for companies to set down roots," said Kennedy.


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