Some of Davenport's finest were honored at Tuesday's city council meeting.

It's a milestone for five Davenport police officers.  They were recently promoted, and with family and friends looking on, Police Chief Frank Donchez presented the city's newly-pinned, higher-ranking officers.

Jeff Bladel is promoted to Lieutenant.

Shawn Roth is promoted to Sergeant.

And Kyle Chisholm, Cliff Anderson and Andrew Harris are all promoted to Corporal.

The officers are being honored for their hard work, dedication and integrity. Chief Donchez says, "They're good officers and they deserve the promotions they're getting and I know they'll live up to the standards that we set."

He says the promotions mean a new title, but also a new set of responsibilities. "That's one of the things we really stress to people we're promoting is that idea of leadership. You need to be a leader. People are going to look up to you in those positions whether it be Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant - whatever the promotion may be, people do look up to you."

The officers have a combined total of 51 years experience at the Davenport Police Department.

Three are following in their father's law enforcement footsteps, including Lieutenant Bladel whose dad was Davenport's former police chief. "It's truly an honor to have good role models in my parents, both my mother and my father and my stepparents, as well as my siblings, and great role models in this profession. I can't see myself doing anything else."

We saw that kind of dedication first-hand this summer when Officer Anderson had to shoot an attacker on the Centennial Bridge.  He's now a Corporal, but a humble one.  He says his promotion deserves no more attention than those of the other four men he serves with.  Like Corporal Harris, who says his promotion as one of the department's future leaders means a lot, "I take a lot of pride in working for the City of Davenport. I grew up here and it's a great honor to be able to serve the citizens of Davenport."

All five openings for the promotions came through a series of retirements that created vacancies in the department.  Chief Donchez says when a higher-ranking officer retires or leaves - it usually creates a trickle-down effect for promotions as people move up through the ranks.

The department plans to hire 6 new officers by the end of the year.