AKRON, Ohio — There are more than 110,000 detectives in the U.S. working to solve crimes and bring justice to victims.
The Akron Police Department currently employs 88 detectives, and one of those investigators is up for a national award.
Dr. Troy Looney, a 31-year veteran of the force, has been nominated as "America's Greatest Detective." The other two finalists are Cynthia Garza from Dallas, Texas and Allision Peacock, the founder of FHD Forensics and Advisory Board Chair of Genealogy for Justice.
RELATED: Meet Akron police's Troy Looney: Detective, doctor, professor, author, animator, lifetime learner
The winner will be announced between Sept. 22 and 24 at the World Marriott in Orlando. The special recognition is through the Law & Crime Network in partnership with CrimeCon's Clue awards.
"I'm very humbled and excited, but pretty much just humbled," Looney said.
Looney said the Law & Crime Network was familiar with his work on the high-profile Stanley Ford murder case and encouraged him to apply.
Ford set fires to two Akron homes in 2016 and 2017, killing nine people, including five children.
In April of 2016, Lindell Lewis, 65, and his girlfriend, Gloria Jean Hart, 66, were killed in a fire at their home in the 700 block of Fultz Street.
In May 2017, seven people were killed in a house fire in the 600 block of Fultz Street. The victims were identified as Dennis Huggins, 35, Angela Boggs, 38 and their five children, Cameron Huggins, 1, Alivia Huggins, 3, Kyle Huggins, 5, Daisia Huggins, 6, and Jared Boggs, who was 14.
Ford was convicted in 2021 and received nine life sentences.
"This is a case that changes your forever, and you just don't want someone like that to go free and be about the neighborhood," Looney said.
During an interview at police headquarters, Looney showed News 5 a thick binder that contained much of the evidence. He pointed out it was only one of two binders, emphasizing the amount of work that it took to build a case against Ford.
"There are witness statements, copies of evidence reports, and copies of crime scene evidence," he said.
Looney stressed he was just one person on a large team of investigators who worked tirelessly to get justice for the victims by tracking down critical evidence, including home alarm code information, indicating Ford was out of his house at the time of the deadly fires and surveillance video that captured Ford in the neighborhood.
Looney said a long interview that he conducted with Ford inside a detective vehicle was also crucial because of inconsistencies in his story.
"Ultimately his statement, locking him into a statement knowing that he had not been truthful about what took place," Looney said.
Looney, who is also an author and the senior director of digital forensics and cybercrimes at the University of Akron, is currently assigned to financial crimes with APD.
He said he takes getting justice for all victims seriously. Earlier this year, Looney explained the persistence it took to get $40,000 returned to a senior citizen who was scammed online.
"The good thing about forensics and the digital era that we live in [is] everything is traceable and trackable," he said last March.
The winner of America's Greatest Detective will receive $5,000.
If Looney's name is called, he would like to do something great with the money to honor the victims of the fires.
"It would be wonderful to set up a scholarship for the deceased children, or all the victims, that passed in the fires," Looney said.
Click here to read more about the America's Greatest Detective Award.
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