The Cleveland Police Foundation is honored to recognize Sergeant Teresa Gomez as our March 2020 Police Officer of the Month.
Sergeant Teresa Gomez is a twenty-three-year veteran with the Cleveland Division of Police and has been assigned to the Homicide Unit for approximately one year. In this short time, she has quickly made an impact!
Sergeant Gomez helped create a waiting room that not just benefits the Division of Police but also the community at large. This waiting room, now called the Grace Leon Room, came to fruition with support from the folks at Blue Line Services, who donated items and their time. Gomez felt it necessary that the family of victims have a warm, comforting and calming room as they deal with the loss of their loved one. She firmly believes that reciprocity with the community begins with building and establishing trust.
Sergeant Gomez continued to look for ways to enhance the services that the Homicide Unit could offer the community. When in California on vacation, she went to the Los Angeles and San Diego Police Department Homicide Units to generate ideas, using her own time and resources to go above and beyond the call of duty. To make Cleveland police more efficient and effective, the sergeant helped create a state of the art conference room, called the HUTT (Homicide Unit Think Tank). The HUTT Room benefits not just the detectives of the homicide unit but is open to the families, witnesses and attorneys. Most recently the HUTT room was made available for the Public Safety Partnership (PSP) as they conducted their interviews. Both the Grace Leon Room and HUTT Room became a reality through the persistence of Sergeant Gomez.
Sergeant Teresa Gomez does not take no for an answer! She considers it a challenge to bring about positive changes within the Cleveland Division of Police!!
Lieutenant Ali Pillow from the Homicide Unit says of Gomez, “Under Sergeant Gomez, the Homicide Unit has changed procedures that had been in place for over twenty years. These changes include case files, case tracking, assignment logs and the filing system. These changes have assisted detectives with their organization and assisted supervisors with the review of investigations. Sergeant Gomez was able to implement these changes without disrupting the unit’s heavy workload.”
It is because of her dedication to the Cleveland Division of Police and the community she serves that the Cleveland Police Foundation is proud to name Sergeant Teresa Gomez as its Police Officer of the Month for March 2020.