Lions honor Beattie as the ‘officer of year’
Honored with John Clarke Award at Innis Arden lunch
GREENWICH — Patrol Officer Ryan Beattie had an eventful year in 2018.
He took part in a traffic stop that yielded a substantial haul of hard drugs, helped rescue a heart-attack victim from the brink of death and worked a Greenwich Avenue retail-crime task force that racked up 85 felony charges.
And as a result, Beattie was named the “officer of the year” at an annual ceremony Thursday. The award, bestowed by the Greenwich Lions Club, is named after John Clarke, a Lions Club president who served as medical adviser to the town police from the 1920s until his death in 1943.
Police Chief James Heavey credited Beattie, a six-year veteran of the department, for his “cando attitude.” He said the officer had the traits the department works to foster — courage, diligence, respect and fairness.
“It’s always a challenge to come up with the recipient of the John Clarke Award every year,” Heavey said. “It’s very hard to pick one officer; there are so many outstanding officers in our department.”
But Beattie was a selection that made perfect
sense, he continued.
The chief praised Beattie in particular for a plainclothes detail he worked during the holiday season with other officers in and around Greenwich Avenue, cracking down on organized rings of shoplifters and credit-card scammers.
“The results of the team were spectacular,” Heavey said. The officers were responsible for numerous arrests and 143 criminal charges being filed. The department apprehended 32 retail crime suspects, many of whom had long arrest records.
Beattie said the award — which is not announced in advance — came as a surprise.
“The chief kidnapped me out of a class an hour ago,” he joked after the presentation at the Innis Arden Golf Club. “I knew something was up.”
The officer said it was rewarding to be a part of the Greenwich Police Department tradition. “To see past recipients, and to be included in that group, it’s awesome,” he said.
Beattie has a brother who is also an officer in the department. Sean Beattie, hired in 2017, was upgraded from a probationary officer to a fullfledged officer, with Heavey giving him his ceremonial paperwork at the event.
State Rep. Livvy Floren told Beattie and the other officers that the work they do is little understood or appreciated, though it is essential. “I’m amazed at all the ills of society that you have to face every day,” she said, with new law-enforcement challenges coming at an increasing rate.
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, a town resident, told the gathering, “I see the good work you do every day.”
The Lions Club has been presenting the award every year since 1948.
“We’re very proud of the tradition,” said Lions Club District Gov. Allen O’Farrell, who gave the plaque to Beattie.
A number of descendants of John Clarke also attended the presentation.