PAGE – Terry TerEick has always wanted to be a police officer ever since he was a child.

“It’s just something that I’ve always wanted to do since I was little,” TerEick said as he was on patrol in a police unit one afternoon. “I idolized police officers.”

TerEick is now 34 years old and he has been a police officer for more than three years. He says his experience at the Page Police Department has been rewarding.

“It’s mainly never knowing what your day’s going to be like,” he said. “Every day’s different. There’s exciting calls, there’s calls that we go on where we really feel like we’ve made a difference.”

And TerEick, who was promoted to detective last fall, has made a difference in this community, regardless of recognition.

“One common thing you’ll see here with our officers is that we all love our jobs,” TerEick said. “It’s not something you’ll see in a lot of professions. We like coming in and interacting with the community like we do.”

For the work he has done in his career thus far, TerEick received a Heart of Gold Award at Victim Witness Services’ 19th annual A Taste of Flagstaff event on Oct. 22 at Little America Hotel in Flagstaff.

This award is given each year to members of law enforcement who have demonstrated extraordinary compassion and dedication to working with victims of crime, according to Page Police Lt. Larry Jones.

“Terry’s strong work ethic and support of victims in the pursuit of justice is exemplary,” Jones said in a statement to the Lake Powell Chronicle. “The specialized training he has … to better understand and work with victims of domestic violence is evident in his work with victims.”

Jones added that TerEick’s investigations into cases and the compassion TerEick has shown to victims has been outstanding.

“(TerEick’s) really done an excellent job for (the Page Police Department),” Jones said in an interview. “He’s handled almost 90 cases since he’s been in investigations.

Jones says a vast majority of the cases TerEick deals with are sexual assault, child crime, aggravated assault, and crimes with victims.

“Helping those victims is a big part of what he does,” Jones said. “He works very closely with the partner agencies that we have.”

Those agencies include Arizona Department of Child Safety, Child Protective Services, Safe Child Center at Flagstaff Medical Center, and Victim Witness Services for Coconino County.

 “And as people know, a large part of what the police department does is try to help victims of crimes,” Jones added. “We investigate crimes, we arrest perpetrators of crime–– We are also there as a piece of the puzzle to help the victims of crime.”

“We’re all … a team working together to prosecute crimes and to help those who are affected the most by crimes.”

TerEick is one of 21 sworn police officers at the Page Police Department.

He also handles the department’s media relations.