Mesquite, TX – April 21, 2021 – The Mesquite Police Department presented their annual Meritorious Awards during the April 19 City Council meeting, which was highlighted by Dustin Chautin receiving the prestigious “Sergeant H. Kent Tyler Award” for Officer of the Year and Public Safety Dispatcher Christy Russell earning the prominent Civilian of the Year Award.
Officer Chautin has been with the department for nearly 14 years and has served in patrol as a property crimes investigator and his most current role is in the Narcotics Unit. He has led multiple high-level narcotics trafficking investigations including the federal indictment of 17 individuals and the seizure of 81 firearms, more than $600,000 and thousands of pounds of illegal drugs. He received the Officer of the Year Award which was renamed in 2019 by the department’s Meritorious Conduct Board in honor of Sergeant H. Kent Tyler, a 28-year veteran of the department, 18 of them serving on the SWAT Team.
Russell, a 20-year veteran of the department, has been a training coordinator and facilitated new technologies in 911 dispatch. She has been recognized through the City of Mesquite’s Real. Texas. Service. Employee Champion program twice and was presented the 2014 Dispatcher of the Year Award by the department.
The annual Meritorious Awards presented at the meeting also included the:
- Citizen’s Certificate of Merit presented to Patrick Lee and Rene Santillan. They assisted with the pursuit and apprehension of a suspect in a stolen vehicle incident flagging down officers and briefly detaining the driver.
- Life Saving Bar and Certificate of Merit presented to:
- Officers Nathan Snyder and Coy Wilson who assisted on a fire call by performing life-saving CPR on a victim of an illegal drug overdose
- Officers Alex Sparling and Kenneth Barber who assisted in life-saving efforts of a victim with two gunshot wounds using their patrol car trauma kit.
- Certificate of Merit presented to Officer Richard Houston who assisted the Garland Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety with the arrest of three suspects of a stolen car used in various crimes and he prevented a suicide attempt by one of the suspects during the apprehension efforts.
