Captain Don Roby accepting the Award of Merit on behalf of Detective Corporal Steve Sunderland. l to r: Dave Petrelli; Captain Don Roby; President Mikel Longman

The IAATI Award of Merit was created in 1992 to honor a person, group, department or company for outstanding contribution in the area of vehicle theft investigation or prevention. The nominees
for the 2009 Award of merit were all worthy of recognition making the final determination was a difficult task for the committee.

This year’s nominee finalists truly represented IAATI’s global impact and included;
• The Automobile Burglary and Theft Prevention Authority Grant of the Houston Police Department comprised of 16 officers from the Houston Police Department, Fort Bend County Sheriff’s
Office, Metro Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety-Motor Vehicle Theft Service.
• The Taiwan Crime Investigation Bureau (CIB), Represented by Mr. M.S. Huang, Director General, in conjunction with the DataDot Corporation.
• The Metro Nashville Tennessee Police Department Auto Theft Unit comprised of 1 Sergeant and 8 Detectives.
• Detective Corporal Steve Sunderland of the Baltimore City/County Regional Auto Theft Team.

After a review of all of the information and statistical data from the nominees, including hundreds of arrests and millions of dollars in vehicle recoveries, the winner was determined to be Detective Corporate Sunderland. Under his direction, the team has focused their efforts on several major areas of vehicle theft including cargo theft, motorcycle theft and insurance fraud. These efforts have produced solid results and a 30 year low in overall vehicle thefts in the area, results that are obviously very impressive and well deserving of the award. The Award was presented at the IAATI Seminar in Westminster Colorado. Accepting the award for Detective Corporal Sunderland was Captain Don Roby who is the head of the Baltimore Property Crimes Section.

Our sincere thanks and congratulations go out to Detective Corporal Sunderland and his team as well as all of the nominees for a job well done. We look forward to next year when we anticipate more
excellent results and some well deserved nominations.