Detective I Joe Esquivel, Serial No. 30163, North Hollywood Operations Support Division, has been selected as Detective of the Fourth Quarter for 2001.

Joe has been a member of the Los Angeles Police Department for ten and one half years. He has been a detective for three years and has been assigned to the North Hollywood Robbery unit for the last year and a half. Joe is an outstanding investigator who can handle any case assigned to him. He is always willing to assist other detectives whenever needed. In addition to handling his own caseload, during this period he has assisted the Homicide and Gang units with several murder cases and serious gang crimes. As a Spanish-speaking interpreter, he makes himself available to anyone in need of help.

Joe has also been the training coordinator for the detective section for the last year. He has done an outstanding job both with scheduling training and being a presenter.

Joe’s investigative skills and professionalism can be best demonstrated by two cases he handled recently. In one case, he was able to connect two unrelated business robberies by evidence he recovered in the suspect’s vehicle. In the second case, a 51-year old female victim reported she pulled into a gas station to get a flat tire repaired when a suspect ran by her and grabbed her purse. Joe and his partners determined a Colombian theft ring had targeted the victim. Detectives noted the victim had just come from a bank and that someone had punched her car’s tires. The suspects were subsequently arrested and admitted being Colombian nationals but denied having anything to do with the crime. Detectives obtained the surveillance tape from the bank and observed one of the suspects standing behind the victim in the bank.

Officer Lizette Makarenko, Serial No. 31705, North Hollywood Operations Support Division, has been selected as Detective of the First Quarter for 2002.

Lizette has been a valued member of the Los Angeles Police Department for approximately seven years. She has worked a variety of assignments, including Patrol, SEU, and the Bike detail. These varying assignments developed Lizette’s investigative skills. As a result of her investigative expertise, she was selected to work a Clearance Team.

Lizette’s hard work and investigative abilities helped the team be a major success. The team cleared over 110 crimes in only a three-month period. When the COP returned most officers to patrol, Lizette went back to uniform duties without complaint.

With the Clearance team back in business, once again Lizette’s teamwork has helped solve a serious crime wave involving over 30 residential burglaries. After a long investigation and with the assistance of the CHP, two suspects were arrested and numerous items of stolen property have been recovered. Lizette helped bring these cases together which resulted in (1) count of Robbery and (4) counts of Burglary being filed on one suspect and (5) counts of Receiving Stolen Property on the other suspect.

Officer Makarenko has recently been selected for an opening in the Sexually Exploited Child Unit at Juvenile Division. Officer Makarenko’s dedication and professionalism is a major asset to the Los Angeles Police Department and she will be missed at North Hollywood.