Howard Giles, a professor of communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a reserve officer with the Santa Barbara Police Department, will receive the Meritorious Service Award from the California Reserve Peace Officers Association at the organization's annual conference in Sacramento on August 22.
The award recognizes "especially meritorious service to the department in a duty of great responsibility." Considerations for the Meritorious Service Award include outstanding performance; extraordinary assistance to the reserve unit, the department, and the community; training or teaching within the department; and longevity of service.
"Howie has demonstrated all of these qualities and is well-deserving of this honor," said Sgt. Riley L. Harwood, Patrol Division Administrative Supervisor with the Santa Barbara Police Department. "We are very fortunate to have him in our Reserve Corps."
The recipient of a dozen outstanding service awards, Giles has been a reserve officer with the Santa Barbara Police Department for 12 years and has achieved the rank of reserve lieutenant. In addition to providing the equivalent of more than 10 full-time work weeks per year, he is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week as a member of the department's Crisis Negotiation Response Team, and as a police chaplain.
Also the executive director of UCSB's Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research (ISBER) Center on Police Practices and Community, Giles is currently conducting research on intergroup communication, much of which focuses on attitudes toward law enforcement, community policing, and police-civilian interactions.
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