Brevard Sheriff’s Aviation Unit Wins International Award

Categories: Brevard County

Brevard Sheriff’s Aviation Unit Wins International Award

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Aviation Unit was recently awarded 3rd Place in the FLIR Vision Awards Ceremony, which was hosted at the 2012 Annual Airborne Law Enforcement Association Convention.

The FLIR Vision Awards are presented annually to airborne law enforcement teams with the best video of a rescue, chase, apprehension or surveillance mission. Only one video per team may be submitted for award consideration.

Corporal/Pilot Chris Sands and Deputy/Tactical Flight Officer Joseph Barrera were among the top 3 finalists selected from video submissions from around the world.

Corporal Sands and Deputy Barrera were recognized for demonstrating their outstanding coordination and quality of teamwork while assisting, tracking and apprehending a burglary suspect in the City of Cocoa in April 2012.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Aviation Unit is known nationally among airborne law enforcement units as a progressive unit with exceptional abilities to locate and apprehend criminals. They have previously been awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and are the only airborne law enforcement unit in the world to be recognized as a finalist in 6 out of the last 11 years for this award.

As part of the award, a charitable donation on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office will be presented to The United Way of Brevard.

Sheriff Jack Parker stated, “We are so proud of our aviation team. This is not the first time they have been nationally recognized for their outstanding work. We have lost count of the number of lives they have saved and criminals they have helped to apprehend.”