Investigator Samuel Derr of the Georgia Southern University Police, recognized as 2025 Bulloch County Public Servant of the Year during Thursday’s banquet, not only obtained arrests after the fact of several serious incidents during the year, he is also credited with preventing one or more potential tragedies.

In September, the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police recognized Derr as Outstanding Police Officer of the Year, so he has now received state and local honors for the same series of actions. Age 36, he is in his ninth year with the university department.

“I really feel like I’m accepting this on behalf of everybody I work with because, like all of my successes are really just the culmination of a lot of other people’s hard work, like this guy right here, who’s one of our officers,” Derr said after Thursday evening’s presentation.

The Bulloch County Public Servant Awards banquet, held as it is most years in the Statesboro Kiwanis Community Building at the fairgrounds, is put on by a group of volunteers including retired law enforcement leaders, a retired firefighter and a former coroner. Dozens of individual and business sponsors contribute. It’s a tradition going back nearly 50 years.

Ten agencies participate

Leaders of nine different agencies – Air Evac Lifeteam 95, the Statesboro Fire Department, Bulloch, Candler & Evans County 911, Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office, Bulloch County Fire Department, Bulloch County EMS, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Region 5, Georgia Southern University Department of Public Safety and Statesboro Police Department – nominated one individual each from their agencies for the Public Servant Award. All received plaques Thursday night.

Additionally, in recent years the program presents a single, separate Meritorious Service Award, which can be for leadership and sustained service or lifetime achievement. This year’s Meritorious Service Award went to Sgt. Robbie Scott of the Georgia State Patrol, so in all, 10 agencies participated in the awards program.

Derr’s busy year

Georgia Southern Police Chief Trey Drawdy was out of town and unable to attend the banquet, but he had submitted a letter in late September nominating Investigator Samuel Derr and noting several of his accomplishments during 2025, particularly from January through May. Georgia Southern’s Vice President of Business and Finance Ron Stalnaker, GS Police Capt. Josh Barker and Sgt. Danny Garrigus attended to present the nomination and congratulate Derr.

In January, Derr learned that a former student received a trespass warning at a local business “due to bizarre interactions,” Drawdy stated in the letter. Soon after that, the former student attempted to buy a rifle from an area gun store “but was denied due to behavioral concerns.” From reports of other incidents, Derr determined that the individual had recently been banned from a number of other businesses “for making veiled threats of violence.”

After briefing the university’s Behavioral Assessment Team, Derr conducted a welfare check to offer the person behavioral health services, but this was declined. So instead, through inter-agency cooperation, the suspect was arrested for making veiled threats at another establishment, and a court ordered the behavioral health services.

“Investigator Derr’s intuition and initiative may have prevented a tragedy,” Drawdy wrote.

Then in March, Derr cleared a case involving 17 state-owned Apple iPads that were stolen while being shipped. After finding that the stolen items were being sold through an online platform, the now award-winning investigator obtained court orders, identified the seller, requested bank information and determined that the seller was an employee of the shipping company. Derr executed a search warrant on the seller’s residence and recovered several of the stolen iPads, so the seller was arrested on felony cargo theft charges, according to Drawdy’s nomination letter.

Also in March, Derr assisted the Statesboro Police Department by responding to a shooting with injuries on Georgia Avenue. On the way, he distributed medical kits and latex gloves to a team of Georgia Southern police officers, and on arrival, “took action by packing a gunshot victim’s wound,” providing “protective care for a 2-year-old child,” and assisting Statesboro police in recording witness interviews.

April brought two more actions by Derr detailed in the nomination letter. When an armed robbery was reported to campus police 18 hours after it occurred, Derr’s work “led to the arrest of a non-student juvenile offender and clearing of … other suspects,” Drawdy reported.

Also in April, when Georgia Southern hosted a meeting of the Georgia Board of Regents, police received information about “an unidentified subject who had engaged in concerning behaviors and could pose a risk to appointed officials,” Derr’s efforts in intelligence gathering quickly identified the person, and information he provided “to other law enforcement agencies … helped ensure the ongoing safety of those in attendance,” wrote Drawdy.

Those in attendance had included Chancellor Sonny Perdue, the former Georgia governor and U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Then in May, Derr was part of a team investigating an aggravated assault in which a victim had been shot in the chest by at-first unknown suspects. Within eight hours, Derr located a getaway vehicle and “spearheaded a surveillance operation,” which led to a felony traffic stop, a search warrant, seizure of evidence and arrest of one suspect. A second suspect was later arrested.

Meritorious Service

The letter nominating Sgt. Robbie Scott of Georgia State Patrol Post 45, Statesboro, for the 2025 Bulloch County Meritorious Service Award did not rely on specific events of this year but rather cited Scott’s ongoing commitment to public service and outstanding leadership qualities he exhibits as a GSP noncommissioned officer.

Scott began his public service career with the Army National Guard, serving nine years, being deployed twice overseas, and reportedly receiving “a multitude of awards.”

He joined the Georgia State Patrol in 2007 and has since taken on multiple roles in the agency.

“Sgt. Scott is a reliable, motivated NCO who provides exemplary customer service …,” stated the nominating letter. “He is respectful, a good listener, always courteous, and provides knowledgeable information to those who seek it. Sgt. Scott works well with all … Post 45 personnel and promotes a group atmosphere. He is empathetic and demonstrates fairness to everyone he encounters.”

Scott manages the GSP Troop F Intern Program and assists the Training Division by instructing Trooper Schools. He also serves as the troop’s Less Lethal Program coordinator and leader of the Mobile Field Force Less Lethal Team.

Those who nominated Scott credited him with regularly giving “guidance to troopers under his command to help them succeed and obtain more positive results.”

8 more honorees

All of the other eight nominees for the Public Servant Award, nominated by leaders in the various agencies, also received Public Servant plaques.

Air Evac Lifeteam 95’s nominee this year was David Bennett, now chairman of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners. Bennett, a veteran of the Army Nurse Corps who retired from the Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel, has been serving as a flight nurse with civilian Air Evac for four years now.

The Statesboro Fire Department’s honoree is Fire Apparatus Operator Cody Hanna.

The 911 Dispatching Center’s honoree, presented by Bulloch E-911 Director Kelly Barnard, is Supervisor Dontarius Lester.

The Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office honoree, Sgt. Curmit Williams, was praised for his work ethic and dedication by Sheriff Noel Brown, who said he also wanted to acknowledge the often neglected but difficult work of jailers and corrections officers in general.

Public Servant Award nominee of the Bulloch County Fire Department was Capt. Morgan Merritt, recently promoted to the training captain position.

The Bulloch County Emergency Medical Service nominee was Paramedic Caitlyn Wilson, recently also qualified as an instructor.

The GBI Region 5 honoree is Special Agent Joe Cephus Jr., nominated by Special Agent in Charge Lindsay Smith.

And the  Statesboro  Police Department’s choice for the Public Servant honor was Sgt. Sneed Collins. Reassigned to the SPD Professional Standards Bureau in July 2023 to help with recruiting and hiring, Collins was credited by Chief of Police Mike Broadhead with completing the hiring of 41 new employees, including 35 sworn officers, in two years.

Special recognitions

Charles Sikes, Jappy Stringer and Stan York again served as the awards selection committee. They thanked organizing and fundraising committee members Ricky Helton, John Allen Smith and Laura Moore for their continuing service, presenting them  with monogrammed walking sticks, fashioned from antique tobacco curing sticks.

Sikes, Stringer and York had specially ordered a different custom-made walking stick for Bird Hodges, and were able to present it to him when he attended but sat in the back of the hall rather than at the head table this year.

The program also included recognitions for one recent and one former law enforcement professional who had died since the last awards program.

GBI Special Agent Tracy Sands served with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation from 1995 until his death Aug. 30, 2025, at his home in Glennville from a sudden cardiac event. He was 54.

Kenneth H. “Kenny” Harville, who served as a Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office deputy from 1977 to 2000, passed away April 1 at age 82.