(From the Joplin Police Department)Please join us in congratulating Detective Chip Root who was recognized this week at the Officer of the Month for October of 2020! Detective Root was presented with the award along with this letter from Chief Rowland. The letter states:
On September 8, 2020, Detective Chip Root was contacted by the Austin Police Department about a sexual assault case they were investigating.
Detective Root took the time to review Austin’s report and located a 2011 Joplin report with the same victim and suspect.
The victim in the 2011 case was 9 years old at the date of the report and, when interviewed, spoke in depth about the suspect molesting her. Detectives in 2011 were not able to charge the suspect with a crime due to lack of corroborating evidence.
Detective Root exhausted all possible leads in the Joplin area before traveling to Texas to conduct more follow ups.
In Austin, Detective Root interviewed the suspect and obtained a confession for the sexual abuse in Joplin as well as sexual abuse cases in other jurisdictions.
After the interview in Austin, Detective Root traveled to Galveston Texas and conducted interviews with the victim and the victim’s mother.
On October 27, 2020, Detective Root was able to charge the suspect with Child Molestation in the 1st Degree, a class A Felony. He also helped strengthen other agency’s charges by getting the suspect to confess to their crimes.
This is just one example of the excellent work Detective Root does on a regular basis. He is always willing to go above and beyond his assigned duties. He continually makes himself available to the victims in his cases to ensure they are treated with compassion and empathy.
Thank you, Detective Root, for your service, hard work, and dedication to our profession and the citizens we serve.
Respectfully,
Sloan A. Rowland
Chief of Police
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