BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Each year the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) Palm Beach Chapter 254 publicly recognizes the best who wear the badge in approximately 40 police agencies and Sheriff’s Offices in four counties.
This year’s top police officer or deputy for the year is an officer who joined his hometown’s police force at the age of 18 as a community service officer (CSO) and now heads the Boynton Beach Police Department’s community response team.
“It’s a great honor – it represents everything officer’s try to do. Try to be the best,” Grigorian said. “It’s because of our collective work.”
In the last year, Grigorian has been involved in at least 20 large cases in Boynton Beach: He instituted the department’s first bait car to reduce burglaries, took down the “Tag Man” on fraud and counterfeiting charges and closed an illegal gambling operation.
Amongst a list of other neighborhood crime trends. His superiors who nominated him for the top LOE award call him “tactically sound.”
“He’s on one those guys where he doesn’t want to miss anything,” said Sgt. Jonathan Kautz, Boynton Beach Police Department. “So he wants to be part of everything and he wants to be there in everything that we do.”
Kautz also said Grigorian’s undercover work reduced the yearly number of calls for prostitution and street level narcotics activity in the heart of the city along Boynton Beach Boulevard.
“I would say that there were probably about between 10 to 15 calls per day at each location and now if you get certain calls it’s basically officers coming out here doing extra patrols. Sometimes there is no calls,” said Kautz.
“We’ve done a lot of good work this past year,” Grigorian added.