Commendation for Detective Bernal

I’d like to commend Detective Christopher Bernal of the Special Investigations Unit.

Detective Bernal worked a case in Financial Crimes involving me, and he went above and beyond. His empathy for the situation was apparent in his communications. The explanations he provided were thorough and direct. He clearly outlined his role in the process so as to set realistic expectations from the very beginning, and I really appreciated his straightforward approach.

Most notable is Detective Bernal’s ability to hear concerns and respond in ways that honor those concerns while maintaining and promoting a realistic view of the situation based on facts and evidence. He’s extremely thorough in his investigation and allows the facts of a situation to come through and tell the story.

He was always available and responded to my questions and concerns without hesitation. He has continued to provide this support, even after the case left his desk and he changed positions within the department, as I have reached out to him on a few occasions within the last year and a half regarding general inquiry questions related to the case and about the process. It was actually only now as I was looking at the emails to write this that I noticed his change of units within the department.

The Community, APD, SIU, and fellow officers are very fortunate to have someone like Detective Bernal working for them. His simply taking the time to respond, so as to assure that I felt heard and informed, has greatly impacted my views of APD in a positive way. He’s a man of great integrity. If he said he was going to do something, he did. This really shaped my confidence in him and his ability to do his job. – N.E.