Suspended APD officer named officer of the year


By Noelle Newton

An officer suspended for ten days by the Austin Police Department, has just been awarded officer of the year.
The Austin Police Association President says he did what the department should have done in the first place.
Officer Jonathan Laborde is appealing his discipline.
Until an outside source decides on the matter, you can take a look at the video of the incident in question for yourself.
In the APD dash camera video, off-duty officer Jonathan Laborde with his badge in his left hand and his gun in his right chases after a man who just ran through his church.
Laborde would later learn that the man he was after, Matthew Rogers, had just attempted to steal from a T-Mobile store. Police say Rogers struggled with an employee and then pulled a knife on him.
The clip after that shows Laborde tackling Rogers in the middle of a street.
A patrol officer can be heard saying, "I can hear somebody helping us out. (siren) Thank God cause I've been chasing this guy. He had a knife on him so I didn't want to get stabbed."
On Saturday, Laborde was recognized by the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas as the Central Texas Regional Officer of the Year.
"The department wouldn't recognize his courage so we did," said Sgt. Wayne Vincent.
Sgt. Vincent nominated Laborde.
"He actually did what I think every citizen would expect an off duty police officer to do," he said.
Vincent's opinion of what took place is much different from APDsupervisors who suspended Laborde for ten days.
A disciplinary memo states Laborde posed an unreasonable threat to the public stating most responding officers didn't know Laborde was an officer, but instead an individual running after the suspect with a gun in his hand.
It is department policy to wait for an on-duty officer to arrive before intervening.
Laborde is appealing the suspension and Vincent is showing his support through this award.
"We did this to send a message to our membership that despite what you might go through and the criticisms you go through when you do the right thing you're doing it for the public and you're doing it for the profession and we're proud of you for doing so," he explains.
Laborde is waiting for a hearing date.
APD is not commenting about this incident again until that hearing takes place.