Tom Meadows (left), chairman of the Office of the Year Committee, and Bill McCreedy (right), president of the Gallipolis Gun Club, present a Kimber .45 to Sergeant Justin Rice of the Gallipolis Police Department. Rice’s name will be inscribed on the Office of the Year plaque inside the gun club.
GALLIPOLIS — The Gallia County Gun Club recently hosted its annual Office of the Year dinner with 200 club members, Gallia County law enforcement, judges and staffs present for the event.
The Officer of the Year for 2016 is Detective Sergeant Justin Rice of the Gallipolis Police Department. Rice has been employed full-time with GPD for 10 years. Before joining GPD, he served with the Gallia Sheriff’s Office and the Cheshire Police Department. He is also a member of the GPD Honor Guard and the city’s special response team. In 2005, Rice received the Life Saving and Distinguished Service Award for his efforts in entering a smoke-filled apartment and helping to rescue 11 residents from the building.
Rice has also been voted Officer of the Year by his peers. The gun club sees Rice as a community-minded person. Rice was a representative for Gallipolis with the Department of Homeland Security and also served as a representative for the department on the Gallia-Meigs Major Crimes Task Force for three years.
