Crime & Safety

Police Chief Earns 2014 'Unsung Hero' Award from Victim-Support Network

Chief Scott R. Seaman and 11 others are being honored Friday as a dedicated crime-victims advocates in Santa Clara County.

Scott R. Seaman, Chief of Police for the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department was chosen by the Santa Clara County’s Victim Support Network as one of its 2014 “Unsung Heroes.” 

Each year the organizations that make up the county support network honor those who have shown special service and dedication to those in our county who have suffered from criminal acts. 

Award organizers write of Seaman: 

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"Since his appointment as Chief, the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department has received three awards for excellence in community policing. 

In 2009, the department was awarded a State of California Investigative Excellence award for its work in a 2008 homicide. 

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This same case was selected as one of the top 15 finalists internationally for the International Association of Chiefs of Police Excellence in Criminal Investigations Award."

Seaman has been chief of Los Gatos/ Monte Sereno since July 2002, served 27 years in the San Jose Police Department, holds a B.A. in Criminology from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Management from Cal Poly Pomona. 

He also is a graduate of the 207th FBI National Academy and the California Law Enforcement Command College and is past president of the California Police Chiefs Association.

The "Unsung Heroes" awards ceremony will be noon Friday at the San Jose Police Officers’ Association Hall, 1151 N. Fourth St., San Jose, as part of this year’s local recognition of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week.

“Justice is not automatic, or inevitable," said keynote speaker and District Attorney Jeff Rosen. "It is achieved through the 'tireless exertions' that these individuals honored inspire in us.”

Honorees include: 

  • Morag Barrass, a volunteer with YWCA Support Network program, who – in addition to serving as a domestic violence counselor – helps victims get free cell phones with 911 emergency services; 
  • San Jose Police Sgt. Kyle Oki, a veteran officer who has become a crusader for victims of human trafficking in the South Bay; 
  • Natasha Haney, of Mothers Against Murder, a Stanford law school student who protected the rights of families struggling in the wake of the murder of one of their loved ones; 
  • Prosecutor Angela Bernhard who prosecuted Jing Hua Wu, who in 2008, massacred three coworkers after he was fired.
  • Silicon Valley FACES attorney Nicole Ford
  • Asian Americans for Community Involvement’s Armina Husic, 
  • Santa Clara County Probation Department’s Barbara Jacobson and Mary Ryan;
  • Community Solutions’ Saozinha Restorick
  • Assistant US Attorney Amie Rooney; 
  • YWCA-Silicon Valley Rape Crisis’ Kate Sackett.


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