“I started flying when I was 16 in gliders and have wanted to be a pilot since I was in preschool.”
Sergeant Bryan Smith made his preschool dream a reality and now has more than 18 years of law enforcement aviation experience and is celebrating 30 years of being a licensed pilot with more than 5,000 flight hours and more than 1,000 of those hours as a flight instructor. His career is marked with dedication to improving overall public safety for his own agency and across the world. Sergeant Smith’s professional ratings include Commercial/Instrument Airplane and Rotorcraft Pilot, Helicopter Certified Flight Instructor, Instrument Instructor and Night Vision Goggle Instructor, Fixed Wing CFI. As the Chief Pilot of PCSO’s Flight Unit Sergeant Smith is responsible for a litany of tasks including managing the budget, mission scheduling, aircraft fleet, and managing the training for the pilots and tactical flight deputies. “I enjoy doing my part to maintain what I think is one of the best public safety aviation units in the world. While I love to fly and do the work myself, it is amazing to see our aircrews doing incredible work on a daily, consistent basis and I like to think that I played a small part in making that happen.” PCSO’s Flight Unit is one of only three accredited law enforcement Air Support Units in Florida.
When taking to the skies, Sergeant Smith’s favorite mission is a missing person call, “My favorite mission is a missing person call at night where we find the victim and get them assistance from ground units. Often the victim is in an area of complete darkness, frightened. When we see them waving frantically you can feel their desperation. It is so rewarding to call in that we have found them and see our surface units making contact to bring them to safety. He also mentions that flying at night overall is a pretty interesting experience, “I love to fly at night with Night Vision Goggles. It is so peaceful in the air at night and the views are absolutely amazing. With the goggles we can see shooting starts on a nightly basis that are not visible to the naked eye.”
Outside of his PCSO role, he served as Safety Program Manager for the Airborne Public Safety Association (APSA) for ten years and recently received their Safety Award. He is also a member of the US Helicopter Safety Team (USHST), where he has served on the Safety Management System Committee and the Spatial Disorientation workgroup. Sergeant Smith regularly gives presentations for APSA, Helicopter Association International (HAI) and the Police Aviation Conference in Europe. Sergeant Smith is the recipient of the 2015 Safety in Flight award from the HAI earning this award due to his work traveling all over the world including Botswana, Brazil, The United Arab Emirates, Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands assisting and teaching their public safety aviation units. Another fun fact, he’s flown tours off a cruise ship in Antarctica.
Back on land, Sergeant Smith is happily married with two children. He enjoys traveling and has lived in South America, China, and Taiwan where he learned Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. He plays guitar and harmonica and has even played in a few Blues and Rock bands. He is also a published author, with his first book Air Support Safety hitting shelves last year.
We are proud to have a member like Sergeant Smith represent the agency with his dedication to public safety. Thank you for your drive Sergeant!