LEXINGTON, Ky. – Some employees may feel as though they are overworked, while others may feel as though they do not do enough. Lexington Police Department Det. Kristyn Klingshirn is the type of employee who subscribes to the latter. 

Klingshirn, 39, is the recipient of the 2021 SPOKE award from the city of Lexington, which honors a skilled, professional, outstanding, knowledgeable and exceptional (SPOKE) employee who exhibits a high level of commitment, initiative and dedication to their job responsibilities.     

The married mother of three and Pittsburgh native began her career in law enforcement nearly eight years ago after serving in the United States Marine Corps. She was nominated for the distinction by fellow members of the Lexington Police Department’s robbery and homicide units. She has been a member of the homicide unit for the past four years.

Aside from managing high-level investigations, Klingshirn is a member of the department’s Honor Guard, is active in hiring and recruiting, organized Shop With a Cop to provide toys and gifts for hundreds of children during Christmas, and spearheaded an effort to give 150 children in the community backpacks and school supplies through a back-to-school drive.

Klingshirn said she was a little shocked to receive the award. 

“The majority of people I work with are men – there's one other female in our unit,” she said. “I don’t mean this to sound bad in any way, but they're not necessarily the people you think of as being the type to think about things like award nominations.”

Det. Steve Cobb, a fellow member of the LPD’s homicide unit and 20-year law enforcement veteran, was not surprised at Klingshirn’s accolade.

“She comes from a family of service,” he said. “She's a police officer. Her husband is a firefighter and both of them were in the Marine Corps beforehand. I remember when she was in the academy. She came in there squared away already from the get-go, very humble about what she was doing and ready to learn.” 

Lexington Police Department homicide Det. Kristyn Klingshirn is the recipient of the 2021 SPOKE award. (City of Lexington)

Cobb said even early in Klingshirn’s career, she would do things with other units most rookie cops would not. She quickly moved through the ranks, from patrol to the violent crimes unit to the robbery unit and, more recently, to the homicide unit. 

“For her time on the force, that's pretty unprecedented,” Cobb said. “That just shows her work ethic, but that's even second to the amount of work she does outside of the police department. She had handled our Shop With a Cop program for the past three years, and that’s a monumental task, but she never turns anybody away. It's never too late or too many or too much. She does whatever she has to do to make it work, including helping out people outside the program. She's partnering with all kinds of other people to make sure kids are taken care of. For most people, this is adding to a plate that's already really full, but it shows her sense of service and the fact that she's willing to juggle those things to help other people. She puts herself last all the time, and that’s probably her only weakness.”

Klingshirn was quick to credit her fellow officers for her achievements, explicitly citing their assistance with her backpack and school supplies campaign. 

“I'm kind of that person who will just go shopping and fill the backpacks,” she said. “They asked me how I was going to do all of it by myself, and I told them I’d get my kids to help. They helped me carry everything in. We took it into headquarters, set up a little assembly line, and helped me fill all the backpacks and load them in the truck. They nominated me, but they've actually done quite a lot to help with the things I do.”