Roseville Detective Wins State-Wide Award

Roseville Police detective Jennifer Engh was one of five public safety officials from across the state to be recently honored with the 2012 Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association.

Engh received her honor April 25 at their Executive Training Institute in St. Cloud.

The Distinguished Service Award is given to an officer who has made exceptional achievements and has shown extraordinary valor, the city of Roseville said in a news update. It "recognizes officers who maintain the highest standard of leadership and who distinguish themselves by superior accomplishments," the city said.

Engh has worked for the Roseville Police since 1999, starting as a volunteer with the Police Reserves, the city said. In 2001 she was sworn in as a fulltime police officer.

Roseville Police Chief Rick Mathwig nominated Engh, the city said, for the award because of her mentoring, leadership, investigative work and community involvement – especially her work focusing on fraud and retail-related crimes.

Engh saw that residents often become victims of identity theft or scams, so she took what she knew and created “Coffee with a Cop,” a program to teach residents what they can do to prevent becoming a victim, according to the city. She put together a presentation, sharing victims’ stories and showing surveillance videos from several Roseville purse thefts. The video showed how these crimes occur and what can be done to prevent them.

Engh also has been a mentor for several officers through the field training officer program and was instrumental in establishing a worthless check diversion/collection program.