The 41st annual Hamilton Kiwanis Club Hank Leverence Police Officer of the Year award goes to Patrolman Richard Liedtka.
HAMILTON -- A big, friendly German Shepherd lumbered to the door, a children's show could be heard playing on the television and a sparkly, pink sign with a child's name marked a closed bedroom.
Speaking from his home in Columbus, in Mansfield Township Tuesday, Hamilton Police Patrolman Richard Liedtka said his life revolves around his family.
Liedtka is the 41st annual Hamilton Kiwanis Club Officer of the Year.
"Pretty much everything is about family," Liedtka said. "Everything is really doing things with the kids. They're only going to be little for so long."
Liedtka has three daughters, 1-year-old Aurora with wife Ashley, 10-year-old Kylie from his previous marriage and stepdaughter Tessa, 7, who is Ashley's daughter from another relationship.
"I was raised in a family that was all adoptions and stepparents," Liedtka said. "But I had a wonderful stepfather so we've always been (like) family is family. Whoever is there for you."
When Liedtka was notified about his selection as the Kiwanis Club's Officer of the Year, he, of course, was with his family.
"I took the kids away for a long weekend for President's Day," Liedtka said. They were skiing in Virginia.
"Chief (James) Collins called me and told me 'Congratulations,'" he continued. "I'm always very awkward with this stuff."
Each year The Kiwanis Club of Hamilton Township selects one officer from a group of nominees who has shown dedicated service to both the community and police force. The award is named after Kiwanis member Hank Leverence.
Liedtka said he was chosen out of a pool of six, who he described all as "amazing officers."
"I'm very humbled, very honored," he said. "It's a little bit different when the 160-some guys you work with all have a vote and you're selected. Hamilton police is a big family."
Liedtka joked that he sees his police partner more than his wife.
"We all know each other," Liedtka said. "Our wives are friends, our children play together, we know all of each others' personal lives."
Liedtka has been with the Hamilton Police Department for 13 years. He previously served one year with a state prison in Chesterfield and two years at a boot camp in Tabernacle, Burlington County.
He said he got involved in emergency response when he was 15 - volunteering as an EMT - after growing up watching his father, grandfather, mother and stepfather work in the line of duty.
"I've always kind of been around this stuff," Liedtka said. "My father was a trooper, my grandfather was a World War II Marine and a police officer for 30 years. He retired a lieutenant."
Liedtka said his mother and stepfather were both EMTs, his stepfather was a corrections officer and his father was a volunteer firefighter in addition to being a corrections officer.
"It's all over the family," he said.
Liedtka said being a 15-year-old volunteer EMT was still a bit intimidating even though he grew up surrounded by the work.
"It's kind of like police work," Liedtka said. "You start seeing some things you don't know how to handle them. I guess at a time you start learning that these things are going to happen whether you're there or not so at least you try to do something to help people."
Now, Liedtka said he trains new police recruits for Hamilton Township. When this cycle of Mercer County Police Academy recruits graduate, it will mark the ninth class he worked with.
"That's what I've always kind of enjoyed," Liedtka said. "The younger officers, you don't realize when you're coming out of the academy, what you're facing."
He said from teaching the recruits how to deal with lawyers with "eight years of college and several years of mentoring" to how to deal with community concerns, he strives to prepare them as best he can.
"I think that's probably the most rewarding part of the job right now," Liedtka said. "That you get this guy who has never known anything about law enforcement and you try to help him have a successful, great career."
Leidtka graduated from the Burlington County Institute of Technology high school in Medford and attended Burlington County College while volunteering as a firefighter - the route he thought his career would go in.
"I was taking both tests and I got corrections first," Liedtka said. "Now I wouldn't change it for anything in the world."
Liedtka will received the award at a banquet next month in Hamilton.
Lindsay Rittenhouse may be reached at lrittenhouse@njadvancemedia.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook.