- January 21, 2025
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Detective Thomas Garcia, a 12-year veteran of the Ormond Beach Police Department, was recognized as the Volusia County Crime Stoppers Officer of the Year in September 2021. He and his family were honored at the City Commission meeting Feb. 1, 2022.
“We have the best of the best here tonight,” said Crime Stoppers Board member Ed Fuller.
“We’re proud of you,” Chief Jesse Godfrey said. “You’re shining tonight.”
Among the cases cited by Crime Stoppers was a burglary at a phone store. Garcia was able to track down the burglars in Houston and link them to a string of other similar burglaries around the state.
"I’m quite honored," Garcia said in a phone interview after the meeting. "It’s a pretty prestigious thing to be recognized. There were a lot of deserving candidates."
He also praised the officers he works with. "I’m not a one-man band," he said. "It’s really the team work of the unit that pulls these cases together."
Capt. Chris Roos, who sponsored Garcia for the award, called him tenacious and relentless.
"He never gives up on the smallest, most remote possibility of that one thing that might lead to solving a case," Roos wrote. " ... He continues to evolve as an investigator, always questioning and never accepting 'you've done everything you could.'"
At the commission meeting, Garcia led his daughter, Dylan, by the hand and posed for a photo with his wife, Amanda; and his children, Jaxon and Dylan.
As the meeting concluded, Commissioner Rob Littleton said he had gone on a ride-along with Garcia, calling him “a work horse.”
“He goes above and beyond, and the city of Ormond Beach is lucky to have him,” Littleton said.
Mayor Bill Partington said he has followed Garcia’s career through the years. “It’s been amazing to see him develop into a quality, sworn officer,” Partington said. “For Detective Garcia to win, it’s an honor for him, and it reflects so positively on the city of Ormond Beach.”
