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Optimist Clubs to Honor Shelby County Deputy as “Officer of the Year”

Release Date: May 1, 2006

The Memphis and Shelby County Optimist “Respect for the Law Committee,” made up of representatives of the 12 Optimist Clubs in Memphis and Shelby County, will be naming Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Patrick Talley “Officer of the Year” on Thursday, May 4, 2006, at 10:00 a.m., at the Criminal Justice Center, in the Sheriff’s Office conference room, 9th Floor, at 201 Poplar Avenue.

The Optimist Club has, since the 1960s, given awards to deserving officers for their exemplary service to the community. “We are grateful to the Optimist Club for taking time to honor Deputy Talley. He is an excellent officer and truly exemplifies the professional standards of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office,” said Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell, Jr.

Deputy Patrick Talley is assigned to the Courts Division at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and presently serves as a bailiff in the Criminal Courts.

On January 6, 2006, Deputy Talley was stabbed in the parking lot of the Sonic restaurant in the Frayser area at 3332 Overton Crossing. Deputy Talley was off-duty at the time of the stabbing.

Deputy Talley, who was wearing his department uniform, had stopped at the restaurant for some food. While there, he saw a fight break out in the parking lot.

When he attempted to settle the dispute, a woman stabbed him in the chest.

In his nomination letter to the Optimist Club, his commander in the Sheriff’s Office Courts Division, Inspector Steve Crouch, made these comments about Deputy Talley:

“By his actions that January day Patrolman Talley demonstrated that a Deputy Sheriff has both a duty and a responsibility to act on or off duty. Patrolman Talley's actions that day were above and beyond the strict call of duty and in fact saved the life of the Sonic employee, the intended victim of the knife assault. Based on the facts above, I respectfully nominate Patrolman Patrick Talley for the honor of Optimist Deputy of the Year.”

Deputy Patrick Talley is 41 years old.

Deputy Talley hired on with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in 1987 as a Deputy Jailer and then in 1989 he became a Deputy Sheriff. He has served as a court bailiff since June of 2002.

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