Alliance Police Department promotes Gerth, Norris

At a recent Alliance City Council meeting, Alliance Police Department Chief David Leavitt announced the promotions of two individuals, Hannah Gerth and Joshua Norris, and recognized them for their commitment to the department and the community as a whole.

Leavitt began by saying it was important to publicly recognize his employees’ accomplishments and promotions, citing their hard work. He explained that Gerth was recently promoted to communications director.

“Hannah has been on the force for 10 years,” Leavitt said. “If you stopped at the filing counter or called the police for any reason, there’s a good chance you spoke to Hannah. What you don’t know about Hannah, unless you know Hannah, is that she’s not just a dispatcher – she’s an important part of this police department. She designed our training program. She was probably involved in training most of the dispatchers who currently work there. She developed and continues to develop and update our SOPs. Whatever process we implement, Hannah usually takes the lead. This has nothing to do with her being made supervisor, because she already did all of these things before she was made supervisor.”

Leavitt explained that in major incidents, Gerth would come to the communications center to help without even being called.

“That’s the type of employee she is, and that’s why I’m so proud to introduce her as the new communications director for the City of Alliance,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt next introduced Norris as the Alliance Police Department’s new sergeant, citing his dedication and efforts to keep the community safe.

“Not only did he take and pass the sergeants test, he also did an excellent job interviewing,” Leavitt said. “The Civil Service Board was extremely impressed with him. Josh not only brings experience in law enforcement, having been here for four years, but also many years of military service. He is a military police sergeant. He has extensive training that he can bring to the police force – he has held many leadership positions and has been deployed. So Josh knows what it means to be from the front, showing these younger officers the ropes and one day getting them to where they are ready to be promoted. It is my great pleasure to introduce Sergeant Joshua Norris.”

Leavitt hopes to continue sharing promotions and honors at City Council meetings. He emphasized that his goal is to continue to develop more leaders within the department.

“This is super important,” Leavitt said. “My job is to prepare the person who will take my job when I leave, and the person who will take his job, and so on and so forth. My job is to develop leaders in this community and in this police department, and I take that very seriously.”