Manhattan Beach Reserve Police Officer Michelle Darringer was honored with the 2015 California Reserve Peace Officers Association’s Distinguished Service Award recently at a luncheon in Sacramento. 

Officer Darringer has been a volunteer member of MBPD’s Reserve Officer Corps since 1993, and throughout her 22 years has served well-above and beyond her monthly minimum requirement of 20 hours, said MBPD Public Information Officer Stephanie Martin.
 And, for many years, Officer 

Her level of commitment to her volunteer work has included a commute of more than 120 miles when she lived outside of Los Angeles County, and for the last three years, Officer Darringer has been the only active reserve officer within the Corps. Also, due to a recent retirement, she now officially stands as the lone reserve officer for MBPD. 

In addition to a full-time career, Officer Darringer makes time in the evenings and on weekends for training and patrol duties and even took vacation time from her job to work the recent Charlie Saikley 6-Man Beach Volleyball Tournament both days. 

As an MBPD Corps member, Officer Darringer provides strength to MBPD's staffing efforts by attending all of the trainings and meetings required by all full-time officers. She also is a member of MBPD’s Crisis Negotiations Team, and is the only reserve officer to ever be appointed to this team. As part of her volunteerism, she attended and satisfactorily completed the required Crisis Negotiations Officer course presented by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and regularly attends in-house as well as California Association of Hostage Negotiators Regional trainings.

Last year, Officer Darringer attended a rigorous POST (Peace Officers’ Standards & Training) Certified Patrol Bicycle school so that she would be eligible to work strenuous bike patrol assignments that include graveyard shifts and beach patrol. She can also can be counted on to work patrol assignments when there are staffing shortages, said Officer Martin.

"MBPD is proud of Reserve Officer Michelle Darringer and congratulates her on being recognized for her outstanding achievements," said Police Chief Eve R. Irvine.

MBPD’s Reserve Police Officer program and its requirements can be seen online.