In less than six years on the force Riverside Police Officer James Lazansky has picked up more than his share of awards. He has been named officer of the month 16 times. He has received five letters of commendation from the police chief, and he has twice received awards from the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists for his work against drunk divers.
Saturday Lazansky received one of the department’s highest awards when he was named the Riverside police officer of the year at village’s annual memorial service to honor officers killed in the line of duty. The event was held at Guthrie Park.
Lazansky is a very productive and diligent officer, said Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel, himself a former winner of the award.
“He’s just an outstanding officer,” Weitzel said. “He’s level-headed, he’s aggressive yet respectful of the citizens. His work on WEDGE [West Suburban Directed Gang Enforcement Task Force] has led him to be one of top producers of search warrants. He’s writes up a lot of drug search warrants. He’s very skilled at developing confidential informants.”
Lazansky is one of two Riverside police officers assigned to WEDGE, and he works six days a month with the task force fighting drugs and gangs.
Lazansky’s work with WEDGE helped him make a key connection that led to the arrest in the recent armed robbery at Grumpy’s. When he saw the sketch of the suspect in the Grumpy’s holdup he decided to check the photos of people that he or his WEDGE counterparts had arrested.
“He looked at the sketch, and he was able to remember that it looked like an individual he dealt with in an armed robbery,” Weitzel said. “He was able to go get that subject’s actual photo and give it to the investigator here, and he told the investigator, ‘Why don’t you put this photo in a photo lineup?'”
The victim of the robbery, Grumpy’s manager Kimberly Palka, quickly picked out the suspect from a photo lineup and the suspect, Cesar Vasquez, was soon arrested.
Saturday Lazansky didn’t want to take much credit for the arrest.
“I just assisted in the investigation,” Lazansky said.
Lazansky, 28, grew up in Stickney and graduated from Morton West High School and Morton College. He says he always has wanted to be a policeman, and dates his interest in the job to watching the television show CHiPS as a kid.
Prior to being hired by Riverside in October 2003 he worked in loss prevention for Best Buy and was an auxiliary police officer in Stickney, where his father is a village trustee.
“I met a lot of police officers growing up in Stickney,” Lazansky said Saturday after receiving his award. “I’ve just wanted to be a police officer ever since I could remember.”
The stocky Lazansky played football at Morton and played center for a semipro team in Melrose Park. That team was aptly nicknamed the Lawman. He gave up football when he was hired in Riverside.
He says he loves being a cop.
“It’s helping others who can’t help themselves,” Lazansky said. “I like meeting the people, talking to people. I like working for Riverside. It’s a great community to work for.
And he loves the variety of police work.
“There is never a dull moment being a police officer,” Lazansky said. “There is always something different.”
Sergeant Lee Zeitlin of the Brookfield Zoo Police Department and the Indian Head Park Police Department was also honored Saturday. Zeitlin, who lives in LaGrange Park, received the Law Enforcement Service Award.