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Rivera a champion for Arvada Police Department

Contributed by: Joseph Kirchmer/YourHub.com on 2/6/2008

Editor's note: Visit our Faces of Arvada and Wheat Ridge page, where YourHub.com staff and readers can introduce you to more people who make this part of the metro area what it is.

Police officer Christopher Rivera steps into his patrol car at 7 a.m., turns the radio dial to a country station and pulls out of the Arvada Police Station for another day of work.

For the next 10 hours, Rivera, 37, will patrol his sector of Arvada, whose boundaries include 88th Avenue to the north, Tennyson Avenue to the east, 68th Avenue to the south and Kipling Boulevard to the west. He's been patrolling this area for nearly two years.

About 10 minutes into his shift, Rivera comes across a suspicious man standing in the parking lot of Checker Auto Parts, 11702 W. 64th Ave., who says he's waiting for a ride to work.

A background check reveals the man has a warrant out of Adams County for his arrest on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and trespassing. Rivera confirms the warrant through dispatch, steps out of the driver's seat and tells the man to put his hands behind his back, "palms up," before handcuffing him and placing him in the patrol car.

It's a long ride to the Jefferson County Detention Center and Rivera makes small talk with the arrestee, a 37-year-old Thornton man trying to make ends meet as a warehouse operator.

"I don't like taking people away from their jobs," he said. "I feel for you, but it was just the wrong place and the wrong time. I don't like taking away a day's pay, but this is my job, too."

The man is quiet and respectful and talks about his former gang ties in Chicago, where he was born. He sounds concerned about how he's going to make bond, which is set at $5,000.

The next four hours of Rivera's shift are pretty quiet. Dispatch airs an emergency call of a silent alarm that went off at a bank inside of a King Soopers, but it's only a false alarm.

Rivera, who has been with the Arvada Police Department for nearly 12 years, has worn many hats during his time with the department. Among other duties, he's worked the graveyard shift and bicycle patrol and filled in as a community resource officer and lead supervisor for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office academy program.

He loves police work, but, more than that, he loves the department he works in. He points to the brand new cruiser he's driving, which only has 600 miles on it; a brand new coat he wears; and the Colt M-4 .223 rifle that the department issued to him, a gun that is considered a step up from most departments.

"I know it sounds cheesy, but I'm a real champion for this department, what they stand for, what they do and how they treat their employees," he said. "They treat us so well. The other agencies are astonished by how much we get here."


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