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Officer of the Year
Officer of the Year
Scott Township’s Police Department unanimously names Alan Ballo its top cop.
By Tim McNellie
Alan Ballo is not a good salesman.There
was once a time when he thought he
might be. After working as a police officer from
1974 to 1978 in North and South Fayette, he
gave up the low-paying police business for a
sales job with Russell Standard.
“The money in police work wasn’t very good
back then,” he recalls. “It was like $7,500 a year
for a full-time officer.To someone in that
situation, the chance to work in sales, with a
company car and an expense account, was very
attractive.”
The problem was, when it came to actually
selling roof coatings he peddled business to
business, Ballo just wasn’t very good.
Photo: Detective Alan Ballo checks a photo on a digital camera.
It wasn’t long before he again put on the
badge of the police officer, this time in Scott
Township. In retrospect, it was a great career
move. Not only had the police pay improved in
the region, but today Detective Ballo is
recognized as one of the hardest-working, most
dedicated officers on his force. Earlier this year
his fellow policemen unanimously voted him
Scott Township’s Officer of the Year – the first
recipient of the newly-created award.
“It’s not a secret that in our field, when
someone has a lot of years of service, they tend
to slow down,” says James Secreet, Scott’s police
chief. “Al still has the same work ethic and drive
of someone who is in their first year.”
As a detective, Ballo is charged with
following up on the crime reports filed daily by
uniformed officers. It’s not uncommon, Secreet
says, to see Ballo spend a day testifying in court,
then run out to conduct investigations on prior
crimes, and then, when he should be on his way
home, stop by a current crime scene and start a
new investigation of that incident.
In fact, when he first became a detective,
Ballo took it upon himself to enroll in
photography classes in hopes of producing solid
crime-scene pictures. In his spare time, he would
stop at the county crime lab and talk to the
technicians about the best ways to preserve
various bits of evidence.This from someone
already 30 years into his career.
“It’s obvious that he’s very interested in his
job,” the chief says. “He’s the perfect role model
for the younger guys just starting out.”
For Ballo, the joy of his work is that he’s in a
unique position to help people when they most
need it, whether as a victim of a burglary or
identity theft or something as simple as assisting
a motorist broken down on the side of the road.
“A lot of time criminals target the weakest
people in our society, whether the young or the
elderly,” he says. “To be able to help the victim is
very satisfying. Not only by making an arrest, but also by helping them learn how to better protect themselves in the
future.”
To that end, he’s spent 18 years working with Chartiers Valley’s
D.A.R.E. program, which sends local officers to the classroom to
talk to kids about drugs and violence.The over-arching lesson that
Ballo imparts to grade-school children isn’t much different than
that which he tells adults: “The world is a good place and most
people are very nice. But you still have to be careful.”
One of the seemingly inevitable side-effects of a career in lawenforcement,
however, is that the job makes you jaded.Many
officers say that day-after-day of dealing with criminals and seeing
people hurt by crime gives you a suspicious, if not downright
negative, view of humanity. Compound that with the frustrations
of not being able to solve every crime, and it’s understandable that
officers sometimes become brusque when dealing with the public.
That effect hasn’t totally escaped Ballo, but it’s something of which
he tries to be conscious.
“I try to monitor myself, and if I’m heading too much in the
wrong direction in my interactions with people, I remind myself
that I’m not just dealing with criminals, I’m also dealing with the
little old lady whose house was broken into, with people who need help.”
Photo: Ballo visits Scott Township’s evidence locker.
One of the most painful aspects of police work is seeing children hurt, whether
physically injured or otherwise abused. Ballo admits that in those circumstances, it can
be difficult for an officer to maintain his composure when dealing with the culprit.
“It’s trying,” he says. “But in our society you’re innocent until proven guilty.”
In spite of the job’s frustrations, though, Ballo loves his work. It shows in his
performance and dedication, and the fact that every officer in his department voted
him officer of the year.
Asked what he would be doing if he weren’t a police officer, he says, “I’d probably
be very unhappy in sales.”
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