As a St. Paul police officer for nearly three decades, Adrian Saffold can work any patrol shift he chooses.

The one he’s selected — 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. on the East Side — is the busiest shift and place in the city. But Saffold said Monday, after being named the St. Paul Police Officer of the Year, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He’s a role model to younger officers and makes a difference in keeping the community safe, Police Chief Todd Axtell said in honoring Saffold.

In 2018, after Axtell said Saffold responded to “a chaotic homicide scene,” he saw a man run past the crime scene tape. It was the victim’s brother, Saffold said.

“Instead of showing frustration and anger, and the warrior mentality to stop somebody from entering the crime scene, he showed us all the guardian mentality of what it means to be a police officer,” Axtell said. “He stepped up to the man and simply embraced him.”

Saffold became a St. Paul police officer nearly 29 years ago and has spent 20 of them in the Eastern District.

He said many people have asked why he continues to work in the field as it changed, with negativity directed toward law enforcement.

Saffold said he tells them, “Because I believe we are making a difference. Every day, citizens approach me and tell me ‘thank you.’ … That simple ‘thank you’ is what keeps me going.”

DETECTIVE, CHIEF’S ASSISTANT ALSO HONORED

Also on Monday, Axtell named Sgt. Michael Dunaski the department’s Detective of the Year.

He’s an investigator in the Gang and Gun Unit and Axtell said Dunaski’s strong connections with the community have made a difference. He’s been an officer for 18 years.

“Although it’s a team effort, Mike played a pivotal role in reducing shots-fired calls in 2018 with a 25 percent drop” from the year before, Axtell said.

Office Manager Angie Steenberg, a St. Paul police employee for nearly 32 years, was recognized as the Civilian of the Year for her work behind-the-scenes. She has been executive assistant to four St. Paul police chiefs, including Axtell.

Steenberg and Dunaski said their fathers, who were longtime St. Paul officers, taught them lessons along the way. Both were there to see them honored.

Thomas Dunaski was a sergeant whom Axtell called “a living legend … who solved big cases,” including the cold-case murder of St. Paul Police Officer James Sackett. Michael Dunaski said it’s meaningful to receive the same award his dad got 21 years ago.

Ed Steenberg put his “heart and soul” in the department for 35 years, his daughter said, and retired as deputy chief.

Mayor Melvin Carter thanked the officers gathered at Monday’s ceremony.

“We know that across the country and certainly across our city … eyes are on every single one of you, particularly every time you put on that badge,” Carter told the officers. “… We believe that that trust that you work hard every day to build is one of our most important assets as a department.”

Runners-up were for Monday’s awards were Alexander Graham for Officer of the Year, Sgt. Amy Boyer for Detective of the Year and Carol Gronfor for Civilian of the Year.

Graham, a St. Paul officer for three years, received three Life-Saving Awards from the department last year for giving people aid after shootings. He also arrested the most people for DUIs in St. Paul during the last two years, including 70 last year.

Boyer started as “a baby-faced parking enforcement officer” in 1995, Steenberg remembered. She became a police officer in 1996 and has been a homicide investigator for the last five years.

Axtell highlighted Boyer’s work in solving a murder case that had very few leads — the beating of 79-year-old Myong “Susie” Gossel in her St. Paul home in 2017.

Gronfor, the police department’s grant specialist, has led the department in receiving nearly $6 million in grants since she started her job in 2016. The grants have been in the areas of community engagement, mental health, family violence, auto theft and human trafficking.