Date: Tue 06-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

police-commendation-Dawley

Full Text:

with cut: Commended By Police

The Newtown Police Department has commended a local girl for finding a Norwalk

police officer's lost badge and returning it to authorities.

While in the parking lot of the Kindercare Learning Center in Bethel, Meaghan

E. Dawley, 6, of Dodgingtown spotted a Norwalk police officer's lost badge.

The badge is the type which mounts on a belt. Meaghan had gone to the day care

center on a trip to pick up her sister, Tara, 2.

Meaghan, a first-grader at Head O' Meadow School, told her parents, Mark and

Patricia Dawley, of Jangling Plains Road, that she had found the badge. They

contacted police.

Last week, Newtown patrol officer George Sinko retrieved the badge from the

Dawley's. For returning the badge, Police Chief James Lysaght, Jr, issued

Meaghan a certificate of appreciation.

It reads in part "With great appreciation, this badge was returned to the

Norwalk police officer who worked so heard to earn it."

"Meaghan showed honesty and integrity by bringing this (lost badge) to the

attention of her parents. Her actions have made her parents proud and she has

gained the respect of the Newtown and Norwalk police departments."