Police Officer of the Month

April 2004

Detective First Class Lisa Grim was selected as Police Officer of the Month for April, 2004. As a member of the Robbery Unit, DFC Grim made several arrests that had a dramatic impact on the number of street robberies reported in the county.

After investigating the robbery of an Arby’s restaurant, DFC Grim had reason to believe the incident may have been staged. She worked quickly to identify a suspect, who was an acquaintance of the person who reported the crime. After further investigation, DFC Grim arrested the suspect, who confessed to the robbery and implicated the reporting person as a co-conspirator. The reporting person was then arrested and the case was closed.

Later, DFC Grim investigated a home invasion robbery where three victims were subdued by two assailants and robbed. Through her investigation she identified two suspects in the robbery and established enough evidence to obtain arrest warrants. One of the suspects was soon arrested and after interviews, a third suspect was identified. At the time of DFC Grim’s nomination, both of these suspects had arrest warrants on file.

DFC Grim learned of another home invasion robbery involving seven victims that had been assigned to another detective. In that case, there had been no leads and no suspects yet identified. DFC Grim shared information about her home invasion suspects and the detective connected one of them to this case as well.

In another case, DFC Grim investigated the armed street robbery of a citizen in a parking lot. She began following the stolen credit card trail the suspects had left behind, but the trail quickly ended with no new leads. DFC Grim continued investigating and became suspicious of a store clerk when she learned that the clerk had attempted to process a second stolen credit card. Surveillance video revealed the same suspects presenting the stolen credit cards from both cases to the same clerk. After further investigation into this new lead, DFC Grim obtained warrants and arrested four suspects, closing the armed street robbery and a separate carjacking case. After the arrests, the suspects were connected to a string of armed robberies and carjackings that had occurred in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

Since DFC Grim’s numerous arrests in April, the number of robberies in the county has decreased significantly. Her success is attributed to quick response, thoroughness, excellent interview and interrogation skills and following through with investigations that seem to have no end. She has proven herself a talented detective and was recently assigned to handle the department’s most serious cases as a member of the Violent Crimes Unit. The Howard County Police Department is proud of her outstanding work.