Palo Alto, CA -- The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of ASIS, (American Society for Industrial Security) International held it’s annual award’s ceremony to honor deserving law enforcement personnel with its Officer Recognition Award. Palo Alto Police Officers Trish Cunag and Erin McNish were this year’s recipients of this prestigious award.

On June 12, 2006, Officer McNish took an interrupted residential burglary. The officer was provided with a vehicle description, license plate and suspect description. A photo of the registered owner proved to be the burglar. Officer McNish worked with San Jose Police officers to identify and locate the suspect over the following week. San Jose Police were able to arrest the suspect on a separate charge and contacted Officer McNish who responded and met with the suspect, interviewed him and arrested him on the residential burglary. Officer McNish submitted evidence from the suspect to the Crime Lab.

On June21, 2007, Officer Cunag took a residential burglary case where the suspect forced entry into a home under construction. There were no witnesses to the crime. Officer Cunag processed the scene and submitted evidence to the Crime Lab. On September 8, 2007, the Crime Lab obtained a match from the submitted evidence, a cigarette butt. This evidence matched a sample taken from the suspect in Officer McNish’s case. This particular suspect was linked to a total of five Palo Alto residential burglaries and three San Jose residential burglaries.

This was truly first-class police work, combining CSI work, data management, follow-up, interagency collaboration and follow-through. The Palo Alto Police Department commends Officer Cunag and Officer McNish on an excellent job.

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