Senior Dep. Rick Godfrey Kiwanis Club of Thousand Oaks is honoring a 39year police veteran as the 2009 Thousand Oaks Police Department's Kiwanis Officer of the Year.

Senior Dep. Richard Godfrey has been helping the Kiwanis with the Conejo Valley Days parade for decades. He's also shown dedication to the citizens of Thousand Oaks by pursuing his passion—finding the truth.

"It's kind of humbling to get an award for something I love to do—my job," he said.

For the past 30 years Godfrey has been assigned to the Thousand Oaks Traffic Bureau, where he investigates serious and fatal collisions.

"He's been very supportive, and we wanted to recognize him for his outstanding years of work and service to the community," said former Kiwanis president Don Hegarty.

Godfrey is often sought by other law enforcement agencies throughout the state to help reconstruct fatal accidents.

He also helps analyze complex crime scenes for the major crime department.

"The key is to gather the right information at the scene," Godfrey said.

He said he uses his education from Cal State University and Northwestern Traffic Institute in Evanston, Ill., as well as common sense he acquired from years of experience as a police officer.

Godfrey makes a diagram of the collision scene to scale, applies physics and engineering and re-creates the collision.

He studies the skid marks, debris, fluids, injuries and other evidence to scientifically understand what happened.

"It's an adventure to come to work. I don't know what's going to happen that day," Godfrey said.

Kiwanis Clubs of Ventura County hosted a dinner banquet at the Ventura Four Points Sheraton recently in honor of Godfrey and other police officers throughout Ventura County.