Patch Awards Godin 2011 Officer of the Year

The men and women who serve our communities are yet another important aspect of what makes us, the Spring-Ford area, such a great place to live. So, when we decided to award our communities' best people in light of our one-year anniversary, we couldn't leave out the police officers and firefighters.

It was tough to narrow it down to six officers, let alone a winner, and one commenter even stressed that all of our local responders deserve recognition. In light of that request, we proudly comply! A huge thank you to all of our police, fire and EMS squads in the Limerick, Royersford and Spring City area.

But, the goal was to honor one, as well, so after careful consideration, we nominated six deserving officers, and after your votes were counted, you decided the winner would be Officer Thomas A. Godin, who earned 3,266 of the 4,386 votes cast. Godin was happy to hear of his nomination, let alone to win the polls.

"I'm very honored, first of all, for the nomination," said Godin. "Officer [Brandon] Unruh from is the one who notified me of my nomination. I just thought that was just amazing. I'm very excited I was able to be a part of this and actually come out and have my peers and the community vote for me in such a turnout. It's really humbling."

Over the course of 2011, Godin and the department had a lot of difficult cases to work on. Being a smaller department, Godin indicated that Royersford Police work on cases from beginning to end without detectives. It's difficult, Godin said, to pick out one case in particular as a big case or a difficult case, but the that ensued toward the end of the year would definitely be considered.

"The disturbance and the assault was a good case that we were able to make good and quick arrests in and get that before it went out of hand," Godin explained. "We were able to get there quickly. I would probably say that case is the one that stands out most recently without reviewing them in my mind."

As for 2012, Godin said he wants to see more interaction between the department and the community to see what they need most from the local officers. He also has big-picture ideas for the borough itself.

"I'd like to see the business district developed," he said. "We're a big walking community - it's a small borough - so, to develop the business district, I know we have some vacant buildings in the 200-block of Main Street; my personal goal is to see a juvenile recreation center for the kids. I see a lot of kids after hours walking the streets playing manhunt and tag with the neighborhoods. It's dangerous.

Godin suggests something along the lines of a pool room or a game room, and a community center with programs also ran out of it.

"If the juveniles are occupied and have things to do, then they don't get turned on to what they do in their free time that may be negative to the community," Godin said. "Maybe there could be after-school/after-work programs run out of that center. I've always wanted to see something like that, because a majority of crimes are committed by people ages 15-23. If we can get the younger ones on the right path earlier, we can reduce a lot of the crime."

Overall, Godin wanted to make it clear that this award was not only a tribute to his service, but to all officers who serve the Royersford Borough.

"Any time you get nominated through the community and through your peers, it's a humbling experience," Godin said. "All of my co-workers and myself and us out in the field do good work and work hard. I think it's hard to narrow a couple of people down. My co-workers are great that I work with. This is as much something for them as it is for me, because we are a team here. We work closely together. The officers I work with, Officer [Mark] Smythe and Officer [Joseph] Oberholtzer are the officers I work with on a daily basis. I can't ask for two better people to work with. Great guys."