Petaluma Officer of the Year had a huge case load

With staffing at the Petaluma Police Department still not back to pre-recession levels, everyone has to work a little harder. The detectives, who investigate the most serious crimes in the community, must take on a bigger case load.

Detective Patrick Gerke in the past year took the lion’s share of cases. In fact, his workload was so great that is was only overshadowed in the Petaluma Police Department by the Polly Klaas investigation of 1993.

For his herculean efforts, Gerke was honored with the 2018 Police Officer of the Year award.

“The lack of personnel means we all have to do that much more,” Gerke said. “Everybody has to do a lot more with a lot less.”

A self-professed “humble guy,” Gerke said it was a team effort, with the other three detectives also taking on massive caseloads. Still, he was assigned as the primary detective during the year on a total of 63 cases, including those involving robbery, sexual assaults, human trafficking and domestic violence.

While most of the work he did involved sensitive investigations, the details of which he declined to talk about, he said it was nice being able to help take a bad guy off the streets and provide justice for victims.

“It’s nice when you see relief in the victim’s eyes and they can rest at night,” he said. “Petaluma is not quite the sleepy town it used to be. We’re dealing with a lot more violent crime than we used to.”

A veteran police officer of 22 years, Gerke, 43, has served in Petaluma since 1997. In 2002, he did a brief stint as a deputy sheriff in his hometown of Auburn.

In Petaluma, he has served in a variety of assignments, including patrol officer, bicycle patrol officer, resource officer, field training officer, corporal and acting sergeant. He was assigned to the investigations team as a detective in July 2016.

Detective Sergeant Paul Gilman, who nominated Gerke, said he served as the lead detective on protocol cases, which include those involving investigation of an outside agency’s officer involved shooting or in-custody death, as per the county protocol.

“Detective Gerke has distinguished himself as a truly dedicated investigator with a reputation for thorough investigations and for not leaving any stone unturned,” Gilman wrote. “Watching him as a lead investigator on protocol cases has impressed me and he has demonstrated an exhaustive energetic drive, especially at the onset of these investigations.”

Police Chief Ken Savano said Gerke was the lead detective on all major cases and officer involved shootings, and he also found the time to mentor and develop his fellow detectives. It is the volume of work he was already carrying and the new cases he was assigned this past year that is so remarkable, Savano wrote.

“As we completed 2018, these detectives continue to manage a case load of more than 20 cases each, none of which even involve property crimes, all of which deal with the worst cases of people doing horrific things to men, women, children, and seniors,” Savano wrote. “Detectives are forced to investigate situations most people could never even imagine.”

The Sonoma State University graduate, who is married with two children, enjoys fishing, camping and spending time with his family. He is in the middle of a five-year assignment as a detective, which he said is a great job.

“It’s stressful, but rewarding,” he said. “You spend weeks on one case and become involved in victims’ lives. You really get to make a difference in people’s lives.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)