Hard work praised: Capt. John McCloskey honors Officer Sean Kennelly. SOURCE: 15TH DISTRICT
Two police officers from the 15th district were recently named Officers of the Month for January after their individual investigations helped solve two unrelated felony crime patterns.
Officer Brian Clerkin’s efforts led to the arrest of a suspect for a series of gunpoint robberies in Frankford, while Officer Sean Kennelly’s investigation of home burglaries in Northwood brought another alleged serial felon to justice.
Starting last November, police began to see a pattern of gunpoint robberies in the 15th district with many of the crimes following the same circumstances. In those cases, victims told police that they were robbed after they responded to a classified ad on Craigslist offering new smartphones at a discounted price. Each victim called a telephone number in the ad and arranged to meet the seller to complete their purchase.
But instead of buying a phone, they each got robbed.
Clerkin was on duty when another similar robbery occurred and he interviewed the victim. After taking the report, the officer called the number in the Craigslist ad and, while posing as another potential victim, spoke to the suspect. Clerkin then delivered the information to detectives, who confirmed the identity of the suspect, obtained an arrest warrant and captured him.
Kennelly also did the legwork in solving a series of home burglaries in Northwood in January. Typically, the crooks used a cutting tool to slice through window screens and access the houses. One of Kennelly’s duties is to process the paperwork for all burglaries in the district.
While doing follow-up investigation on one of the crimes, he found stolen items on sale at a local pawn shop. In the pawn shop’s records, Kennelly found information about the man who had brought the stolen item to the shop. The officer supplied that information to detectives, who obtained an arrest warrant and captured the suspect. ••
