On Saturday, March 6, 2010, more than 900 persons gathered at the Fountainebleau Hotel Ballroom for the annual Law Enforcement Officers (LEO) Awards Gala. This event over the past 10 years has been recognized as the Academy Awards for Law Enforcement in South Florida. This was the 10th Anniversary Gala and was the largest attended ever.
Two Sunny Isles Beach Police Officers were finalists for the award in Uniform Services. Officer Marcelino Mariabello and Officer David Barrios had made it to the final cut based upon nomination by the Chief of Police. Both officers had distinguished themselves for their actions over the past year including pro-active productivity in arrests for criminal activity, thwarting crimes, D.U.I. intervention and locating individuals with open warrants.
They have been a great asset to the safety of our community and were selected from amongst many entries nominated by agencies across Dade County. Congratulations to both of them! Officer Tom Philpart who was selected as Officer of the Year for 2009 for the Police Department.
Officer Philpart is a highly respected, polite and hard working officer who came to us several years ago from Port St. Lucie. He is enthusiastic and always willing to help out, both to the department and to colleagues. He is the epitome of the professional police officer, always in control and always about the job, never about himself. Officer Philpart was recognized and introduced to the Concern Citizens Group of N.E. Dade in January for having won the Officer of the Month Award.
Congratulations to Officer Tom Philpart.
