Law Enforcement BPD Officer of the Month for May 2012

BRADENTON -- Officer Brandon Smolarz is the recipient of the Bradenton Police Department’s Officer of the Month award for May 2012.

Police dispatch received a call during the early morning hours of April about a man checking door handles of parked cars in the 1000 block of 11th Avenue West. Officer Smolarz responded and tracked the suspect’s direction of travel.

Officer Smolarz then went to the back yard area of a home in the area where there was a parked vehicle under the carport. It was there that he located and apprehended the suspect, who was trying to break into that parked vehicle.

He was nominated for the award by Lt. William Fowler, Sgt. John Negron and Sgt. Dennis Stahley.