Denver Police Officer Katherine Urbina understands cops sometimes get a bad rap.
She wanted people in the southwest Denver neighborhoods she patrols to see that police officers do good work.
That’s why she voluntarily checked on a family’s house while they were on vacation. And it’s why she drove a man with severe health issues to a clinic and bought groceries for him.
“I wanted to do a little bit extra to change their minds,” Urbina said.
On Wednesday morning, Urbina, along with two other Denver Police Department officers, were honored for going above and beyond their duties and for improving police officers’ reputations in the community.
Officer Eric Cardenas and Cmdr. Mike Calo were recognized by the Citizens Appreciate Police committee and received plaques as well as pins to wear on their uniforms.
Urbina was told to appear at the ceremony but didn’t know why she was being honored until she arrived.
“I kept wracking my brain on the way over here,” she said. “I didn’t lift a car off a kid or save someone from a burning building.”
This is what she did do.
Urbina responded to a domestic violence call in November and found an older man, who was not involved in the fight, living in a bad situation.
He had allowed a family with two children to move into his house, but they were doing nothing to help. The couple had been fighting, the house was filthy, and the man’s catheter bag was full.
Urbina drove him to a clinic to get his catheter changed. Then she took the man, who happened to be an aging ex-con, to a grocery where she paid for the food.
“He was being really kind to someone else and was getting nothing in return for it,” she said.
The man since has passed away.
Urbina also watched the house of a vacationing family who had had a dispute with their neighbors over a dog. The family was fearful of the neighbors and considered canceling the trip.
Urbina cruised by several times a day to make sure things were OK, and left the family a note to let them know she had been by.
Urbina said the family previously had been unhappy with police because they were not satisfied with the response to a complaint. Her work changed their minds about police officers.
Cardenas, who works at Denver International Airport, was honored for helping an intoxicated young man get home from Denver. He had spent a night in a detox unit and had lost his wallet.
But Cardenas got him a cab ride to the airport, contacted his mother to update her on the situation and bought the man breakfast since his money was gone.
Calo received the award for finding low-cost airline tickets for a police cadet and his brother when they needed to fly home to Hawaii for their brother’s funeral.
Calo’s wife, Kitty Calo, works for an airline company and found two buddy passes for the brothers. When it was time to return to Denver for work and school, the brothers got stuck in Hawaii because they kept dropping to the bottom of a list for people traveling on passes.
Calo knew the brothers would be moved to the top of the list if they were traveling with an airline employee or spouse. On his day off, Calo flew from Denver to Hawaii, met the brothers and their parents at the airport, and then flew on an overnight flight home with them.
Calo and his wife often travel to Hawaii and, on their most recent trip, Calo fished with the brothers’ father.
“Now, we have a budding friendship,” Calo said.
During the ceremony, Chief Robert White acknowledged police protests happening across the country, largely triggered by white officers shooting black men.
He hoped the awards show people that good cops exist and do good work day in and day out.
“This has been a very rough year for the police,” White said, “and a little love goes a long way.”
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or
