Respect. Honor. Remember.



 June 2007:
Detective II John O'Toole, Los Angeles Police Department

May 2007:
Detective Bryan McMahon, Lowell (MA) Police Department

April 2007:
Master Officer Ken Hammond, Ogden City (UT) Police Department

  

OFFICER OF THE MONTH - DECEMBER 1996

DETECTIVE J.C. GONZALES
WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT

 November 2008:
Officer Justin Bowman, Chesapeake (VA) Police Department and Officer Brandon Bowman,Virginia Beach (VA) Police Department

October 2008:
Senior Officer Specialist Melissa Foy, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)

September 2008:
Detective Thomas McHale, New York and New Jersey Port Authority Police Department (PAPD)

August 2008:
Detective Sergeant John Jedrejczyk, City of Passaic (NJ) Police Department

July 2008:
Detective Eric M. Kovanda, Bloomfield (CT) Police Department

June 2008:
Officer III Andrew Taylor, Los Angeles Police Department

May 2008:
Sergeant Travis Ash, Baker County (OR) and Sr. Trooper Christopher M. Hawkins, Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife

April 2008:
Officers Christopher Timms and Krzysztof Gesla, Baltimore (MD) Police Department

March 2008:
Officer Brian Bobick, DC Metropolitan Police Department

February 2008:
Officers Derrick Dottin, Alex Capobianco, Steven St. Hilaire, Somerville (MA) Police Department

January 2008:
Officer Benjamin Henrich, City of Prescott (WI) Police Department

December 2007:
Sergeant Stephanie Jackson, Tulsa (OK) Police Department

November 2007:
Special Agents Donovan Williams and Kendall Beels, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security

October 2007:
Detective Michael J. Madonna, Oakland (NJ) Police Department

September 2007:
Special Agent Paul Buta, United States Secret Service

August 2007:
Corporal Philip Crosby and Patrolman Christopher Denton, Fayetteville (AR) Police Department

July 2007:
Detective Tina Lacertosa, Broward County (FL) Sheriff's Office

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Detective J.C. Gonzales of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department couldn't believe it was happening. He'd carefully chosen an inconspicuous location to meet the "King of Hanover Street," one of the most dangerous drug dealers in the city. Unfortunately, when he showed up, the area was swarming with Secret Service agents and uniformed police officers. It seems the President was meeting across the street.

Somehow, though, the meet went off without a hitch. Detective J.C. Gonzales had once again used his superior people skills to save the day.

A special undercover officer, who has served for 26 years, is used for the most complex and dangerous cases, Detective Gonzales has a remarkable 100 percent conviction rate. The people he's helped to put behind bars reads like a who's who of D.C.' s underworld-familiar names like Rafael Edmonds, Freddie Agular, and Cornell Jones.

According to his boss, J.J. Brennan, Detective Gonzales is "responsible for the arrest of one of the biggest drug dealers in the U.S., a member of the Columbian Cali cartel.. He's so good that we've never had to kill anyone. He just quietly does a case, gets the conviction, and the bad guys go away."

Known for conducting his deals over meals and getting the bad guys to pay the bill, Detective Gonzales has a unique ability to set up a case so that he's always in control. He dictates to the bad guy how the deal will go, and he keeps it safe for everyone.

Rick Watkins says that his partner, J.C., "tends to (everyone's) needs. He is genuine in his concern for the informant or the dealer."

He's also learned to resign himself to the inevitable. When another of his undercover drug buys ended up being at the same hotel as the local sheriff's fundraiser, he figured, what the heck, when you're an undercover police detective in the Nation's Capital, you have got to expect the unexpected.