At a recent meeting of the Alliance City Council, Alliance Police Department Chief David Leavitt announced the promotion of two individuals, Hannah Gerth and Joshua Norris, recognizing them for their dedication to the department and the community as a whole.
Leavitt began by explaining that it is important to recognize their employees publicly for their achievements and promotions, citing their hard work. He explained that Gerth was recently promoted to Communications Supervisor.
“Hannah has been with the police department for 10 years,” said Leavitt. “Chances are, if you’ve stopped at the records counter, or you’ve called the police department for some reason, you’ve probably talked to Hannah. What you don’t know about Hannah, unless you know Hannah, is that she is not just a dispatcher—she is a huge part of this police department. She designed our training program. She’s probably had a hand in training most of the dispatchers that work there right now. She’s developed, and continues to develop and update our SOPs. Any process that we put into place, Hannah usually takes the lead on it. This is nothing to do with her being made supervisor, because she was doing all these things before she was made supervisor.”
Leavitt explained that during major incidents, without even being called, Gerth will come to the communications center to help out.
“That’s the kind of employee she is, and that’s why I’m so proud to introduce her as the new communications supervisor for the city of Alliance,” Leavitt said.
Next, Leavitt introduced Norris as the newest Sergeant at the Alliance Police Department, citing his dedication and efforts to keep the community safe.
“Not only did he take the Sergeants test and pass it, he interviewed extremely well,” said Leavitt. “The Civil Service Board was extremely impressed with him. Josh comes not only with law enforcement experience, being here four years, but many years of service in the military. He’s a Military Police Sergeant. He’s had a lot of advanced training that he can bring to the police department—been in a lot of leadership roles, been deployed. So, Josh knows what it is to lead from the front and show these younger officers the ropes and bring them up to someday where they’re ready to be promoted. It is my esteemed pleasure to introduce you to Sergeant Joshua Norris.”
Leavitt hopes to continue sharing promotions and honors during city council meetings. He emphasized that his goal is continue to mold more leaders within the department.
“This is super important,” Leavitt said. “My job is to prepare whoever takes my job when I leave, and the person that takes their job, and so on and so forth. My job is to grow leaders in this community and in this police department, and I take that very seriously.”