'The Most Challenging Year': Officers Of The Year Reflect On 2020

STAMFORD, CT — Throughout such a whirlwind year, two members of the Stamford Police Department stood out above the rest and faced the challenges head on in order to keep residents in the community safe and sound.

On Friday, the Stamford Police Association (SPA) will honor investigators Louis Burdi and David O'Meara for their contributions to Stamford in 2020 with Officer of the Year Awards. Burdi and O'Meara are partners in the department's Squad B Major Crimes Unit.

"These two officers are a great example of having well-trained, diligent and honest women and men serving in the Stamford Police Department," said SPA President, Kris Engstrand in a news release earlier this week.

Jonathan Gale, the 2019 honoree, will also be recognized. His ceremony was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Throughout their journey to become police officers, Burdi and O'Meara have been together pretty much since day one. They're both from Carmel, N.Y., and although they didn't directly know each other growing up, they had mutual connections through family and friends. It was at the Police Academy where the two first became close.

Burdi and O'Meara have now both been with the SPD for 10 years, so being honored together is extra special. O'Meara called it "humbling" and credited the men and women he gets to work with every day. "It really is an honor to be selected," he told Patch ahead of Friday's event.

"It's a tough job, and it's only getting tougher these days. To be recognized for all the work that we do in a positive light is great. We enjoy the work that we do and we like getting rewarded for it," Burdi added.

The Major Crimes Unit deals with shootings, armed robberies, stabbings and homicides, among other crimes, and most cases are complex to solve. But Burdi and O'Meara compliment each other well.

Burdi described himself as "the search warrant guy."

"I'm the guy that puts everything on paper," he said. "I'm also the cell phone guy, the guy who knows how to work with cell phone data, and analyzing cell phone information for most of our cases."

O'Meara said he likes getting out and about.

"I'm more outside. I'll go out there and break down video surveillance and try to get witnesses. I'll do a lot of field work," he said.

The investigators' skills were put to the test several times over 2020 with some challenging cases.

From May through October, the Mobil gas station on West Main Street in Stamford was robbed three separate times. The first incident occurred during large protests following the death of George Floyd, so the SPD was focusing a lot of manpower at protests downtown.

"We were familiar with the cameras in the system [at the gas station] and the cameras in the area, so we were able to do a canvass and we started going back and back," O'Meara said. "Finally, we were able to pick up some suspects through that camera work. We basically spoke to witnesses, got some information from the streets and some of the community members helped us out, and we were able to tie it together [to make an arrest]."

In March of 2020, Marco Jewelers owner Mark Vuono was killed after his store, located on 6th Street, was robbed.

"The owner was very well known, and for him to die tragically being murdered in a botched jewelry robbery, It shook a lot of the people who lived here," Burdi said. "From day one, we scoured the area and we were able to ascertain all kinds of surveillance video footage. Within a two-day span, we were able to track back the getaway vehicle which basically sent us in the direction of a few suspects from New York. Once we were able to establish that, the FBI got involved and it turned into a multi-jurisdictional federal investigation. Things moved quickly, and five days later they were in custody. It was one of the more gratifying cases we've worked on."

The passion for policing and helping the community is what keeps Burdi and O'Meara going.

"These cases that we work on are sometimes big puzzles, and I really enjoy putting the pieces together, and finding out who committed these crimes and putting them away," O'Meara said.

The camaraderie in the Major Crimes Unit is also vital to the success rate in solving cases.

"The people we work with are phenomenal. We're like-minded, we have the same work ethics, the same interests, and we just love being together doing this work," Burdi added.

Burdi and O'Meara said their investigation processes were made that much more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic and "some anti-police sentiments" in 2020.

"Just the fact that society wasn't coming outside, and people didn't want to talk to other people. Some segments of the community didn't want to talk to us. It was very challenging," O'Meara said.

"It made our investigations a lot more difficult," noted Burdi. "We had to rely on abstract thinking, a lot of technology and eventually we broke through. What we do is hard work and it's tenacity, and you just gotta keep moving."

Now, Burdi and O'Meara have been rewarded for that hard work and tenacity.