Amarillo Rotary Club honors Cody Adams as APD officer of the year

Excerpt

Cody Adams, a five-year veteran of the Amarillo Police department, was lauded for his effort during his early morning shift May 10, 2021.

On Thursday morning, the Amarillo Rotary Club awarded Cody Adams as its Amarillo Police Department Officer of the Year for his distinguished service to the community.

Adams, a five-year veteran of the department, was lauded for his effort during his early morning shift May 10, 2021, which resulted in four felony arrests and three recovered stolen vehicles, all within a six-hour time frame. Through his diligent investigative skills, Adams was able to turn a call for a suspicion of a stolen vehicle near the Relax Inn on I-40 into multiple arrests and the recovery of stolen property.

According to national data, as of 2017, about 59% of all stolen vehicles are recovered. Adams spoke to the uniqueness to be able to recover this amount of stolen property within this time frame of his regular shift.

"The sheer amount of property that we were able to recover based on a suspicion call resulted in a really positive outcome for the department and community," Adams said. "It is a great honor to be recognized, although I do not do it for the recognition; I do it for the people of the city. There is a lot of great police work being done in this city."

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Amarillo Police Chief Martin Birkenfeld spoke about the importance of the department's success stories being told to the community they work hard to protect.

"It is always an honor to see what our community does to honor our officers' great work; the rotary club is an outstanding organization that does a lot of great work for the community," Birkenfeld said. "it is important for our community to know what we are doing."

The Rotary Club of Amarillo has a long history of honoring first responders throughout the community. Amarillo Rotary Club member David Low, the head of the committee that chose the yearly honor, spoke about the history and reasoning that the club started honoring officers of the quarter and year 31 years ago.

"We saw many years ago that there was a need to recognize our first responders; at the time, there were no other organizations that were doing this service," Low said. "For an outside group to recognize them means a lot to the department.

"Just the story of the one night's work that Officer Adams put in, that resulted in arresting multiple criminals, just shows the dedication that our department displays in their service to the city."

Birkenfeld closed by speaking about Adam's great effort that resulted in the honor.

"Officer Adams does a great job; the whole department is proud of the outstanding work he does every day, Birkenfeld added.