Crime Prevention & Youth Services
Courageous Citizen Awards
The District Attorney's Courageous Citizen Award
was created to commend those individuals who have acted with courage
and at considerable personal risk to help a victim of crime, assist
in the capture of a suspect, or testify in the face of extraordinary
pressures.
Courageous Citizen Awards are presented at
regional luncheons hosted by local Rotary clubs. Rotary, an
international service organization, joins the District Attorney in
honoring these citizens because the award recipients exemplify the
highest form of community service. It is our hope that this kind of
public recognition, in a world where heroes are often hard to come
by, will have a far-reaching impact on our community -- and
particularly on our young people.
The courage to take action in the cause of
justice, without regard to personal consequences, was referred to by
John F. Kennedy as "the basis of all human morality."
That action -- dictated by conscience or spurred
by a keenly felt perception of wrong -- separates those who turn
away from those who make that split-second decision to get involved,
to save a life, to catch a thief. It is for those individuals who
take the latter course that the District Attorney's Courageous
Citizen Award was created.
If you would like to read some true stories of
remarkable men, women, and children who have won the District
Attorney's Courageous Citizen Award, click
here.