LOCUST — The Locust Police Department has announced the winner of the 2024 Chief Steven “Smitty” Smith Officer of the Year Award.
At the Locust City Council meeting on Feb. 13, Locust Police Department Chief Jeff Shew named Corporal Ryan Tran-Thompson as the recipient of the annual award honoring the memory of former LPD Chief Steven Smith, who passed away in 2020.
Smith’s wife Melissa was on hand at the meeting to present Tran-Thompson with the award plaque named in her late husband’s honor and memory.
“Ryan (Tran-Thompson) is a natural leader who makes sound decisions,” the Locust Police Department said in a statement. “He has taken initiative to coordinate training throughout the entire year to better our department and he has also taken full ownership of our FTO program. Ryan comes to work with a good attitude, and he is always willing to go above and beyond to help wherever he can.”
Tran-Thompson received a department-record eight nominations from his fellow officers; Locust Officers Eric Fore and Officer Adam Hartsell were the two other finalists for the award.
“The Locust Police Department is so proud of the jobs that every one of our officers do in contributing to the success of our agency and the support we enjoy in the community. We specifically congratulate these three officers for their stand-out performance in 2024.”
The previous winners of the Chief Steven “Smitty” Smith Officer of the Year Award are Corporal Dwayne Dietz (2020), Sergeant Brandon Stancil (2021), Detective Sergeant Brittany Tucker (2022), and Officer Timmy Hartsell (2023).
Prior to joining the LPD in 2022, Tran-Thompson previously worked as a patrol officer for seven years with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, where he assisted in the instruction of cadets at the CMPD Police Academy and completed hundreds of hours of high-level training courses.
He was previously an Officer of the Year finalist and received a department leadership commendation from Chief Jeff Shew after being promoted to the rank of corporal in 2023; he was also assigned to the role of overseeing the department’s field training program for new and lateral hire officers last year.
Tran-Thompson has earned both the Intermediate and Advanced Law Enforcement certification from the NC Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission.
The aforementioned two other finalists for the 2024 Chief Steven “Smitty” Smith Officer of the Year Award — Fore and Hartsell — each contributed to the overall performance of the LPD’s work in the local community and elsewhere.
Fore was recognized as a finalist after he organized, coordinated, and participated in a supply relief donation drive last summer to aid victims of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, while Hartsell was the department’s overall statistical leader for the second-consecutive year with 812 traffic stops, 624 citation charges, and 142 arrest charges.