By the time you read this, the Candlelight Walk will be over. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered again this year to help us bring Christmas lights and Santa to the holidays.

As we end the year and look forward to next year, we have a number of exciting changes. We have reorganized the department, moving to two Division Chiefs and adding an additional Sergeant to Investigations. This will enable us to investigate more cases such as identify theft, fraud, computer scams and allowing more time for in-depth investigations.

Promotions are always exciting as our department develops and we move forward. We have promoted one new lieutenant and three new sergeants. Sergeant Kim Ferber was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the Investigations Division; Joe Ward, previously a South Metro Drug Task Force Agent, was promoted to sergeant and assigned to a patrol team; Hal Mandler, previously Littleton High School SRO, was promoted to sergeant and assigned to a patrol team; and Steve Zoratti, previously a detective, was promoted to sergeant and assigned to a patrol team. We have brought some very talented people to patrol.

We’re also pleased to announce the addition of a new officer to the Department; Samuel Hufschmidt. Our three Police Officer Recruits, currently in the Academy, Michelle Jones, Chase Gordon and Timothy Chastang will graduate on December 9, 2011. We are very proud of them.

In addition, the new City Manager, Michael Penny, has begun. He has been incredibly impressed with the City of Littleton, our employees and all the volunteers. He is working to get around to meeting everyone he can.