Steve Gottlieb/Alpha Group Center Award for Creativity and Excellence

The Steve Gottlieb/Alpha Group Center Award for Creativity and Excellence was designed to encourage and recognize an IACA member’s development and implementation of an original, creative and unique idea, plan or program that successfully curtailed or eliminated a crime problem or quality of life issue, enhanced the efficiency or effectiveness of a public safety organization or who, by some imaginative means, has made a significant, and preferably replicable, contribution to the field of crime/intelligence analysis.

This is an individual award to be given to an IACA member of a public sector agency. It is not an organizational or group award. As such, any public sector, private sector or vendor IACA member may submit the name of any IACA member employed by a public sector agency as a candidate for this award. However, public sector organizations themselves, groups of individuals, and individuals employed by vendor and/or private sector agencies will be ineligible to receive the award.

The Award

The chosen recipient will be awarded a $2,000 check, made payable to the sole recipient, a physical award/plaque from the Alpha Group, and a certificate/letter from the IACA to the recipient.

Examples

To qualify for the award, one need not have necessarily discovered a way to accomplish the above objectives in a grandiose manner. Though the submission of creative ideas that led to grandiose achievements are welcome, simple approaches to problem solving or the implementation of creative ideas that significantly improved any aspect of law enforcement operations will be equally considered as well.

• Problem #1: The owner of a convenience store had a problem with loud, disruptive and unsavory “gang bangers” who were hanging out in his establishment and thereby driving his good customers away. Repeated police responses did not resolve the problem.
• Solution #1: The police department’s Crime Analyst came up with the idea of playing classical music on the stereo in his store, quickly discovered that gang bangers had no taste for Bach, Beethoven and Brahms and they left the premises for good. Problem solved – Quickly, creatively and cost effectively.
• Problem #2: Homeowners living in a large cul-de-sac with a neighborhood park in the middle of their housing development were very upset that boisterous teenagers were hanging out in the park late at night drinking beer, smoking narcotics and littering the park. So they went to the police and demanded that something be done about the problem! Budget problems precluded the police from assigning officers to extra patrol the park, and because many residents worked at night and needed to have ingress and egress into and out of the area, barricading access to the park wasn’t feasible since blocking off the park would have also blocked access to the road leading into and out of the development.
• Solution #2: A patrol officer suggested that the timers on the sprinklers in the park be reset to run at night. Problem solved – Quickly, creatively and cost effectively.

These were simple yet creative solutions that were used to resolve two crime problems. And it is the utilization of this type of creative and imaginative thinking that the Steve Gottlieb/Alpha Group Center Award for Creativity and Excellence is looking to recognize. As indicated earlier, submissions of grandiose achievements that “changed the world,” are welcome. But even those that simply “made it a little better place” will be equally considered as well.  We look forward to receiving your submissions and to saluting your success!

Details/Criteria

The Awards and Recognition Committee reserves the right to disqualify any entry that does not meet the above criteria. 

A confirmation email will be seen at the time of submission. A copy can also be found in the member Profile under Message History.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Awards and Recognition Committee at [email protected].

The submission period is not currently open.