{"id":102728,"date":"2021-03-17T08:43:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T12:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=102728"},"modified":"2022-01-12T09:28:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T14:28:25","slug":"safety-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2021\/03\/17\/safety-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety first"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Police Officer Billy Thomas was named the 2020 Wright State University Officer of the Year. Lt. Kurt Holden, interim director of public safety, presented Thomas with the award during a small ceremony near Alumni Tower on March 10.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a shock, I wasn\u2019t expecting it,\u201d said Thomas. \u201cI\u2019m very surprised and honored.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOfficer Thomas has really stepped up this year,&#8221; Holden said. \u201cBilly was very determined to not allow the quality of services diminish in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thomas serves in the field-training program to help train staff. He became an officer in charge to help support the supervision team and volunteered to help the dispatch team through staffing shortages.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_102736\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?attachment_id=102736\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-102736\" class=\"wp-image-102736 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2021\/03\/pic2223230-508x286.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"259\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-102736\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dispatcher Earl Thompson, right, and Kurt Holden, interim director of public safety.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>During the ceremony, Holden also recognized dispatchers Earl Thompson and Whitney White with Distinguished Service Awards for their excellent service during difficult times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou talk to us but you don\u2019t see us,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cYou see the officers and not necessarily us and so it\u2019s nice to be acknowledged.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_102740\" style=\"width: 470px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?attachment_id=102740\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-102740\" class=\"wp-image-102740 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2021\/03\/pic3333332320-508x286.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"259\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-102740\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dispatcher Whitney White, right, and Kurt Holden, interim director of public safety.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Holden says that all three recipients are incredible employees and were heavily relied upon during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur officers and dispatchers here are required to report every single day,\u201d said Holden. \u201cTheir commitment to Wright State is second to none.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wright State Department of Public Safety honored its Officer of the Year and recognized staff members for distinguished service. <a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2021\/03\/17\/safety-first\/\" class=\"morelink\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":102732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[729,725,727,715,4847,2024,720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-campus","category-home-news-sidebar","category-homepage-photos-and-video","category-news","category-public-safety","category-staff","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102728"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102790,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102728\/revisions\/102790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}