Veteran detective recognized as Glendale’s Police Officer of the Year

A veteran police detective was recognized Thursday as Glendale’s Police Officer of the Year at the annual police awards luncheon.

Since joining the force more than two decades ago, Scott Byrne has worked as a patrol officer, traffic officer and property crimes detective.

From August of 2012 to January of 2014, Byrne represented Glendale on the LAPD Taskforce for Regional Auto-theft Prevention, where he picked up investigative skills to better detect vehicle fraud.

Since then, he’s investigated several high-profile fraud cases, including one in which a Glendale Galleria Lego store employee allegedly stole more than $35,000 worth of Lego products over an 18-month period, selling them to a man who resold them on eBay or abroad at a large mark-up, Byrne said.

He also investigated an insurance fraud suspect who claimed that his 1957 Classic Ford was stolen after he purchased it from his father in 2013. As it turned out, his father had died in the mid-1990s and the man couldn’t come up with any evidence that the car ever existed.

While searching the man’s house, police found a stolen truck, as well as engine parts and vehicle identification numbers that had been removed from cars.

For more than 15 years, Byrne has served on Glendale’s SWAT team, something he does in conjunction with his other duties.

“With his wide range of professional knowledge, Detective Byrne makes himself available to other officers by providing insight and advice,” said ABC7 anchor David Ono, who emceed the event and presented the award.

Byrne credits his work ethic to his fellow colleagues, from whom he has spent his whole career learning.

“I work with guys who work their hearts out, basically, and I learned from them,” Byrne said. “When I think about the shoes I have to fill, it just makes me want to work harder.”

Byrne joined the force 21 years ago, not long after his sister, who was at the time and still is a police dispatcher in Glendale, arranged for him to go on a ride-along with Glendale police.

A student at Cal State Northridge at the time, Byrne spent the day on patrol with Scott Bickle, now a Glendale police lieutenant.

“I was hooked from then on,” Byrne said, adding that he subsequently worked as a reserve officer for a year before joining the force full time.