Helping run the DeKalb police department’s Police Athletic League — which offers sports, mentoring programs and more to local youths — is not work for Detective Khary K. Ricketts.
Not really, anyway.
“If I’m dropping a young person off at 3 o’clock in the morning, I’d rather them be with me than be in the street,” he said. “I’d rather these kids be here at 6 p.m. learning something about life, getting some resources. Even if I’ve got to drop a kid to a job interview. It’s not work.”
Don’t tell that to Merrick Garland.
Garland, the United States attorney general, was in DeKalb Thursday to honor Ricketts and fellow detectives LaTosha B. Prather and Dan-nae Webber for their work with PAL.
All of them received the prestigious Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing, making them three of just 18 rank-and-file officers across the country to be so honored — and the only ones to have Garland, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta and U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine attend their ceremony.
Gupta called Ricketts, Prather and Webber “the best of policing.” Garland called them “super highly” deserving of the honor.
“I want to underscore that these actions would’ve been tremendous during the best of times,” Garland said during the ceremony in a crowded conference room at Georgia Piedmont Technical College. “But they occurred those during a pandemic, and the fact they did is further evidence of their commitment to the community they serve.”
The three DeKalb detectives — who, along with a supervisor, make up the entirety of the local PAL program — were recognized for a variety of efforts over the last few years. They include leading cheerleading, dance and basketball programs for local kids; adapting their annual summer youth academy for a virtual setting; orchestrating a virtual “Gaming with a Cop” program; running mentorship programs and a career development program geared toward youngsters selling water on the side of the road.
Eight of the nine students in that initial class were placed in jobs. The ninth is in a dual enrollment program with Georgia Piedmont Technical College.
“Three people. Three people did this,” DeKalb police Chief Mirtha Ramos said. “To say one person cannot make a difference would not be talking the truth.”
Ricketts, Prather and Webber were emotional Thursday, honored and thankful to be recognized. But they all said it’s less about them and more about the kids, the community they serve and the good they can do.
“This is like our heart, this is like our baby,” Prather said. “No matter what we do we put 150% in.”
Said Webber: “At some point, all of us had a mentor. All of us had someone that we looked up to on a regular basis. That was it for me.
“I wanted to be that mentor to some of these young women and young men and just give life that little bit of sunshine.”
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