An officer with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is being recognized after her quick reaction helped save a girl who was kidnapped.
Officer Meghan Gonzalez was presented with the RapidDeploy “Superstar” award by the department for using the text-from-911 feature and Radius Mapping, helping to locate the victim.
“The Superstar Award recognizes individuals for their ‘excellence in action,’ honoring those who made a life-saving impact, demonstrated exceptional use of RapidDeploy technology, and continue to enhance emergency response throughout their community,” Sergeant Deirdre Vickers said.
This award has only been given to someone once before in the company’s history.
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On May 2, 2023 at 9:11 p.m., Gonzalez received a 911 call where she heard noises in the background like the dinging from a car door and a voice.
Although she could not understand anything, she kept listening for a few minutes to try and detect if this was an emergency.
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“That just didn’t sit right with me,” Gonzalez said. “I had my intuition gut feeling.”
She told the caller to press any number on the keypad if they needed help, but received no reply.
Gonzalez then used RapidDeploy to contact the caller via message to ask if there was an emergency. She received a “YES” reply.
They continued messaging and a deputy was sent with the GPS coordinates Gonzalez obtained during the initial call.
The victim informed Gonzalez via text that they had been beaten, bitten and was nude in the back of a truck.
Gonzalez said the victim had no idea where she was because she was originally in Blythe and was now in Moreno Valley.
The victim provided a description of the vehicle and the kidnapper’s identity.
Deputies arrived within a minute and found the victim next to a liquor store. The kidnapper was taken into custody.
