Full Notification

Chief James Leal proudly recognized several officers and other department personnel for their contributions to making our community a safer place in ceremony today. Chief Leal also expressed his appreciation for a citizen who bravely assisted in the apprehension of knife wielding suspect in a crowded coffee shop. He also publicly thanked the Alameda County Fire Department with their assistance in updating technology.

Officer Rodgers

Conrad Rodgers was hired as a Newark Police Officer on December 17, 2012. Conrad transferred to our department as a lateral deputy from the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department.

Conrad has spent time in Atlanta, Salinas, Washington and San Diego but was raised mostly in Sacramento. He graduated from Elk Grove High School. He has a B.S. degree in Criminal Justice/Forensic Science from Weber State University (Ogden, Utah).

Conrad began his career in law enforcement as an intern with the West Valley City Police Department Forensic Unit (West Valley, Utah) and with the Sacramento Valley High Tech Crimes Task Force (Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department).

Officer Losier

Steven Losier was hired as a Newark Police Officer on April 1, 2013. Steven was hired as an academy graduate and had his first taste of law enforcement as a Cadet with the Richmond Police Department.
Steven grew up in Fremont and Brentwood. He graduated from Liberty High School in 2007. He has attended college courses at Sacramento State University and Los Medanos College. He has an AS in Fire Science.

In May of 2011, Steven joined the United Sates Marine Corps. He is currently on reserve status with an infantry unit based of out of San Bruno.

Officer Taylor ~ Medal of Valor
Newark resident Steve Rodrigues ~ Certificate of Appreciation

On March 22, 2013, Officer Taylor was dispatched to the Starbucks on Thornton Avenue regarding a report of a man brandishing a weapon. The individual in question was asked to leave by an employee and he instead pulled out a knife. When Officer Taylor arrived on scene, the subject advanced toward him while still clutching the knife in his hand. Officer Taylor drew his service weapon and ordered the subject to drop his weapon, but he did not heed his commands. In a matter of seconds, Officer Taylor decided he had to physically disarm and control the suspect because there were innocent citizens in the line of fire.

After a brief struggle, Officer Taylor was able to disarm the combative man, but had difficulty fully controlling him enough to place handcuffs on him until Mr. Rodrigues offered his assistance.

Mr. Rodrigues' willingness to get involved despite obvious physical risk is commendable and possibly prevented Officer Taylor, the subject, and other bystanders from sustaining injuries during this highly volatile situation. It takes a special person to be willing to get involved, especially in a situation where physical harm is a real possibility.

Officer Sandoval ~ Gold Award
Officer Warren ~ Silver Award

As the primary investigator, Officer Sandoval worked with the victim’s cellular service provider and directed Officer Warren to a possible location of the stolen phone. DNA and partial fingerprints recovered from the victim’s vehicle were inconclusive, so Officer Sandoval’s quick thinking as it relates to the tracking of the cell phone was instrumental in the identification of the suspect. Officer Warren was tasked with observing the suspect and he eventually made consensual contact. The suspect initially provided a false name, but Officer Warren was able to determine his true identity and discovered he was a parolee-at-large. He also located the victim’s cell phone and the clothing the suspect wore during the commission of the crime. Both officers’ testimony at trial helped to convict the suspect of numerous charges and he was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.

Alameda County Fire Division Chief Brian Caminada ~ Certificate of Appreciation
Alameda County Firefighter David Nguyen ~ Certificate of Appreciation

After replacing the electrode pads in the Automated External Defibrillators housed in our patrol vehicles, we discovered that the machines’ software also needed to be updated. We were in the process of procuring the services of an outside vendor until Chief Caminada offered his department’s assistance. Your staff, led by Firefighter David Nguyen not only updated the software on each machine, which would have been quite costly, but also relabeled the overlay instructions, inserted new batteries, and offered training to our officers. We appreciate you going above and beyond to ensure that our needs were met and that the citizens of Newark have this technology available when it is needed in the future.