Each year, the Crime Stoppers organization selects a winner for the Crime Stoppers of Will County, Inc.-Taylor Pirc Scholarship, to help a local student with their college expenses.
Victoria Fritz of Channahon is the winner of this scholarship for the 2010-2011 academic school year.
Victoria graduated from Minooka Community High School in May 2010. She is now attending Joliet Junior College as a law enforcement major. She will be awarded $1,436 for the school year from the Crime Stoppers of Will County.
Victoria hopes to become a police officer in the near future and eventually work as an FBI agent. The recipient of this award must be a criminal justice or law enforcement major at Joliet Junior College and have a GPA of 3.0 or above.
Applicants applied online and submitted an essay detailing their thoughts on the subject: “What I see as Challenges and Opportunities in a Career in Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.”
This generous scholarship was created in memory of Taylor Pirc. Taylor was killed by a drunk driver on February 21, 1999, when she was only four years old. In honor of Taylor, her family began the Taylor Pirc Video Camera Project in May 1999. The money raised by this organization was used to install video cameras in a squad car for each of the 30 jurisdictions in Will County.
The goal was to provide police officers with documented evidence of drunk drivers during traffic stops. Taylor’s family is hoping to get a camera in every squad car in Will County, and will continue this organization as long as drunk drivers are still killing innocent victims.
Crime Stoppers is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to building smarter, safer communities in Will County by working with citizens, the media, and law enforcement.