Sgt. Keith C. McCabe has received the Officer of the Year Award from the Gastonia AM Optimist Club as part of its “Respect for Law” program. Sgt. McCabe is a 17-year veteran with the Gastonia Police Department where he serves a vital role in leading and training officers, primarily in traffic safety efforts.
Sgt. McCabe is the Gaston County Law Enforcement Coordinator for the Governor’s Highway Safety Program. In this role he manages the GPD’s and interagency traffic enforcement activities in connection with Booze It & Lose It, Speed a Little-Lose a Lot, and Click It or Ticket campaigns. He helps coordinate education events in the community on impaired driving using fatal vision goggles; texting and driving; and child passenger safety seats.
Sgt. McCabe and his team of traffic accident reconstructionists are frequently called to assist law enforcement agencies in Gaston, Cleveland and Lincoln counties. Sgt. McCabe and his team provide technical expertise in collision investigations by mapping scenes and obtaining information from vehicle crash data recorders to present to the district attorney’s offices in those respective jurisdictions.
In addition, he is a Standardized Field Sobriety Testing Instructor teaching officers in our community and across the state on how to identify impaired drivers along with testing procedures to get impaired drivers off our roadways to ensure the safety of the public. He serves on the Technical Advisory Committee for Impaired Driving through the state’s Forensic Test for Alcohol Branch.
In 2018, Sgt. McCabe coordinated two retired officers’ funeral escorts and partnered with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol in the escort of the late Rev. Billy Graham through Gaston County.
Other accomplishments include:
- He has been instrumental in developing a Peer Support Team in Gaston and Lincoln counties, which provide one-on-one and group debriefings to first responders that are involved in traumatic events.
- He researched and applied for a grant through the Gastonia Police Foundation to replace first aid boxes in patrol vehicles with individual first aid kits. The kits provide officers with equipment that can be used in situations involving traumatic injuries.
- He is a specialized instructor teaching the First Responder Block for the Basic Law Enforcement Academy at Gaston College. He also provides training to GPD officers on hazardous materials and bloodborne pathogens during annual in-service training.
- He holds an associate degree in emergency medical science from Catawba Valley Community College, a bachelor’s in business from Montreat College, and master’s in business from Pfeiffer University.
- He is a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves and serves as an instructor for the Advanced Leadership course out of Fort Knox, Kentucky, training Army National Guard, Reserve and active duty non-commissioned officers.