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SEARCH Annual Awards Spotlight Leadership and Contributions to Justice and Public Safety

Each year, SEARCH bestows annual awards to honor a select group of justice professionals whose achievements and leadership exemplify SEARCH ideals of improving information use, management, and exchange among justice and public safety agencies.

The SEARCH Board of Directors selects the honorees, who are nominated by SEARCH Members and by past award recipients. The select group is recognized in three broad categories of leadership: justice policy, practitioner, and SEARCH Membership.

SEARCH is pleased to announce its award recipients for 2013, selected by the Board at its Winter Meeting in Portland, Oregon in late January:

• Mr. Ronald P. Hawley, Executive Director (retired), SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, who will receive the 2013 O.J. Hawkins Award for Innovative Leadership and Outstanding Contributions in Criminal Justice Information Systems, Policy and Statistics.
• Mr. Robert Wessels, Vice Chair of the Texas Judicial Committee on Information Technology, who will receive the 2013 Gary R. Cooper Meritorious Service Award.

The awards were presented to both honorees the evening of Tuesday, July 23, at SEARCH's 2013 Annual Membership Group Meeting in Sacramento, California. (This year, the Board did not select a recipient for the third award category, the Justice Policy Leadership Award.) New! See photos from the Awards ceremony

2013 Hawkins Award

The O.J. Hawkins Award is SEARCH's highest practitioner honor, and it formally acknowledges an individual's service, dedication, and contributions that have improved the justice community's ability to develop and use criminal justice information. In particular, past recipients of the O.J. Hawkins Award have made outstanding contributions that have a broad-ranging impact, often affecting multiple states, justice disciplines, or branches of government.

It is the only nationally recognized, competitive award for contributions in the field of criminal justice information management, and is named for Orville J. (Bud) Hawkins, who was SEARCH's first Chairman and Executive Director. Read more about this award, and the leadership of 2013 recipient, Mr. Ronald P. Hawley, Executive Director (retired) of SEARCH.

2013 Cooper Award

The Gary R. Cooper Award honors a SEARCH Member whose work in the field of criminal justice information systems, policy or statistics has been outstanding. The award, named after long-time SEARCH Executive Director Gary R. Cooper (retired), enables SEARCH Members to recognize one of their colleagues for contributions both to the field of criminal justice information and to the success of SEARCH.

Read more about this award, and the leadership of 2013 recipient, Mr. Robert Wessels, an At-Large representative to the Membership Group.

Past recipients of the Gary R. Cooper Meritorious Service Award have represented state-level justice and public safety agencies and programs in 22 states and the District of Columbia.