Once a year, the Committee puts on an awards ceremony and brunch, recognizing the officer from each department in Orange County who has recovered the most stolen vehicles during the previous calendar year.

The 26th Annual Orange County ATAC Vehicle Theft Recovery Officer of the Year Awards Brunch took place on May 24th, 2016 at the Irvine Marriott. 

"It’s a pleasure to be here again, to honor our local law enforcement as well as share with you some of the magnificent efforts that our Orange County officers and deputies put forth consistently to apprehend auto theft criminals. 

Orange County continues to experience an on-going vehicle theft problem:  Stolen vehicles are used by the criminal element for robberies of businesses and private citizens, for violent gang activity, and other serious crimes.  As we witness all too often on the news, these stolen vehicles are often used to flee from police officers, endangering the lives of the public and law enforcement officers.  Organized crime groups continue to steal vehicles for the benefit of their illegal enterprises, including the use of the vehicles for smuggling, drugs, and illegal exportation to other countries.

Law Enforcement Officers throughout Orange County continued to wage the battle against the crime of Vehicle Theft.  In 2015, despite the hard work and arrests made by Orange County Law Enforcement Officers, Vehicle Thefts increased 37%.

By sponsoring the Vehicle Theft Recovery Officers of the Year Program, ATAC intends to raise public awareness in three ways:

First: ATAC will continue to recognize the positive results local law enforcement efforts have had upon the vehicle theft problem in Orange County.

Second: ATAC will continue to work with the media and the community to produce public awareness messages about the vehicle theft problem, and to provide tips to help prevent thefts. 

And Third: It’s the reason we are gathered today – ATAC will continue to recognize those officers in Orange
County who excel in vehicle theft recoveries. These awards were developed to honor excellence in law enforcement and to encourage officers to strive for excellence in vehicle theft recovery in the future.

The criteria qualifying an officer for the award consist of these conditions:

1) The sworn peace officer must have been a regular “road” patrol officer when he or she earned the statistics qualifying that person for the award.  This means that officers assigned to vehicle theft investigative positions, or task force assignments, are ineligible, because they would have had an unfair advantage.

2) Awards are usually presented to one individual, unless the agency has nominated a two-officer team, who will then share the award. 

3) ATAC carefully reviews the nomination submissions forwarded by each law enforcement agency and places a higher emphasis on rolling vehicle recoveries, arrests, and significant case highlights, as submitted by the nominating agencies." 

As presented by Master of Ceremonies Pat Haslam, Real Orange KOCE Public TV Featured Reporter, at the May 24th, 2016 A.T.A.C. Officer of the Year Awards Presentation. 

The 26th Annual Orange County ATAC Vehicle Theft Recovery Officer of the Year Awards Brunch took place on Tuesday, May 24th, 2016 at the Irvine Marriott.  For more on the Orange County ATAC Awards please click here.

2015 Michael Gibbons

2014 Kevin Flanagan	2013 Kevin Flanagan	2012 Tom Carney	2011 Kevin Voorhis

2010 Tom Carney	2009 Steve Yakubovsky	2008 Kevin Flanagan	2007 Kevin Flanagan

2006 Tom Carney	2005 Randy McWilliams	2004 Tom Carney	2003 Tom Carney

2002 Jim Geist	2001 Jim Geist	2000 Bill Allison	1999 Jim Geist

1998 ATAC Recovery Officer of the Year Award Recipients