AWARD … Williams County Prosecuting Attorney, Katherine Zartman is pictured with Detective Ben Baldwin while he receives the Williams County Top Cop Award on November 22, 2022. (PHOTOS BY LINDSAY PHILLIPS, STAFF)
By: Lindsay Phillips
On November 22, the Williams County Prosecutor’s Office presented their first Top Cop Award of the year in the Williams County Community Offices.
Williams County Prosecuting Attorney, Katherine Zartman presented the award to Williams County Sheriff’s Office Detective Ben Baldwin.
Detective Baldwin was chosen for the award because of his commitment to excellence, tireless work on multiple high profile criminal cases, outstanding attitude, and his spirit of cooperation with all people.
Baldwin’s family has a known history with law enforcement with his great grandfather being a police officer in Fort Wayne and his grandfather as a police chief for Fort Wayne.
Baldwin’s mother, Dawn, was a dispatcher for Williams County and retired after 30 years.
Baldwin began his career in the field as a Defiance County Dispatcher in 2005 and spent eight years there.
In 2013, Baldwin transferred to the Williams County Sheriff’s Office to serve his hometown.
Two years ago in November of 2020, Baldwin was promoted to detective. As detective, Baldwin handles any criminal case that involves in depth investigation, in particular, he investigates sex crimes.
Baldwin also serves as lead firearms instructor who provides training to law enforcement agencies in the four-county area.
While presenting the award, Prosecutor Zartman stated, “Some recent cases of note include, Christopher Sturtevant, Ben was instrumental in obtaining double guilty verdicts on this brave case.”
“Without his quick collection of evidence and thorough interviews, we may have not been successful in prosecuting that case at all.”
Zartman added, “Ben puts himself in danger in more ways than one, in an effort to fight crime and keep people safe. He has endured threats from at least one offender and just lets it roll of his back.”
CONGRATULATIONS … Williams County Sheriff Tom Kochert spoke briefly about Detective Baldwin’s flawless work as an officer, trainer, and detective. Kochert is shown congratulating Detective Baldwin on his Williams County Top Cop Award.
In addition to serving law enforcement, Baldwin is also a captain for the Madison Township Fire Department and serves on the Board of Developmental Disabilities.
Baldwin thanked everyone for the award and stated, “I couldn’t do this without the many blessings that I’ve received from God and my family.”
“Foremost obviously, I couldn’t do this without their love and support every day.”
Baldwin shared, “I love my job and I have a passion for law enforcement, I don’t care if you’re a victim, complainant or the suspect, I will treat you with suspect if you treat me with respect and I think that goes a long way in the successes.”
Baldwin added, “I appreciate this, and I will continue to do my job, this is my job, but I do it with a passion.”
“I will continue to serve my community to the best of my ability. Thank you so much for this.”
Sheriff Tom Kochert then approached the podium and spoke. Kochert stated, “Ben is one of my go to guys. Chief and I a lot of times will be busy and the guys on the road will have questions or especially with the training team and with creation of a training team, I was really hoping when we got here, we would have likeminded individuals and I did.”
Kochert added, “Ben has taken the training team by the horns, he’s assisted us with different disciplines, he is one of the guys, regardless of how busy he is, regardless of what’s going on, that I can say hey Ben, hey Ben.”
“And you mentioned his attitude, I never get an attitude from Ben. He does exactly what I ask him to do every single time and does it correctly.”
After applause was had for Detective Baldwin, he was presented with the framed award.
Lindsay can be reached at lindsay@thevillagereporter.com