Crime & Safety

Traffic Division Police Officer Receives 'Chief's Award'

Fort Lee Police: Award recipient for April is Police Officer Pedro Morey, a Marine Corps Vet and precision marksman

Fort Lee Police Officer Pedro Morey is the recipient of Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas Ripoli’s monthly “Chief’s Award” for April, the police department announced recently.

Morey, who grew up in Union City and graduated from Emerson High School, joined the Fort Lee Police Department in August 1993 and has worked on every shift in the patrol division during his 18 year career, according to the police department, serving in the Mountain Bike/Community Policing Unit, Narcotics Division, Evidence Division and General Investigation Division.

Morey has received several police department awards and citations, including a meritorious unit valor award for assisting in the apprehension of a man who had barricaded himself in his apartment and threatened to kill himself and emergency services officers with a compound bow and arrows.

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Morey also received a meritorious service award for the arrest of three armed members of an Asian gang who specialized in home invasions of members of Fort Lee’s Korean community. This arrest assisted the FBI in its investigation of the gang and ultimately led to their federal prosecution.

Morey served for five years in the U.S. Marine Corps prior to joining the Fort Lee Police Department and was deployed to Guam, Honduras, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. He earned several awards, medals and citations during his military career, including a Navy Achievement Medal with Combat “V,” a Combat Action Ribbon and a Kuwait Liberation Medal. Morey also received a battlefield promotion to the rank of Corporal of Marines.

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“He’s been a very levelheaded performer in the police department, and he’s good with kids,” Ripoli said of Morey. “He’s worked on different units within the department. He has a lot of knowledge, and he’s very disciplined due to his military experience.”

Ripoli created his “Chief’s Award” shortly after he took over the duties of Fort Lee Police Chief in 2004. The monthly award honors individual officers for their years of commitment to the department, as well as their contributions to the community. Each month, Ripoli issues one administrative award to a member of the Fort Lee Police Department.

“I pick an officer who has time on the job,” Ripoli has said of the monthly award. “I look at his awards, his work ethic, sick time, his loyalty to the town and the extra that he does. It’s a hard decision honestly, because there are a lot of candidates, and you try to pick from that. And you miss people along the way also.”

Morey is currently assigned to the Fort Lee Police Department’s Traffic Division and is a precision marksman in the Emergency Services Unit.           

He is also a life member of VFW Cariola-Barber Post 2342 of Fort Lee.


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