Brevard County Sheriff Jack Parker hopes to see the name of Deputy Barbara Pill on his new north precinct facility when it opens next year.
The sheriff will go before the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, asking them to name the new office after the deputy who was killed on duty in March. The building would be named the “Deputy Barbara A. Pill Law Enforcement Facility.”
In a request to the commissioners, Parker asked the facility be named “in honor of Deputy Barbara Pill who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave her life to protect the citizens of Brevard County.”The deputy’s widower, Steve Pill, said he and his two sons plan to be at the commission meeting.
“It means a lot to us,” he said. “Her name is going to always be there.”
Both of the Pills’ sons now work for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office; their youngest son previously worked for Melbourne Village Police Department but is now going through orientation with the sheriff’s office. Steve Pill said he doubts the commissioners would object to naming the facility after his wife.
“They still remember, and they want to remember,” he said. “It just shows me how far she was respected and the involvement that she had in the community.”
Barbara Pill, 52, was fatally shot on March 6 during a traffic stop while investigating a robbery reported at a Melbourne-area motel. She had worked more than 30 years in law enforcement and about 15 years in Brevard County.
“Our heroes are those who risk their lives every day to protect us and make our communities a better place, Deputy Pill is a sterling example of one of these heroes. Deputy Pill was beloved by all who knew her,” Parker’s request reads.
Before the March incident, it had been 18 years since a sheriff’s deputy was fatally shot while on duty.
As Brevard law enforcement officers and the community mourned the loss of Pill, they also began a series of efforts to memorialize the deputy.
“Barbara will be forever remembered as a (deputy) who gave everything she had to make Brevard County a safer place. She was a blessing to our agency and to all who had the honor of knowing her,” Parker’s proposal reads.
The $4 million sheriff’s north precinct facility is expected to open in 2013 and provide a home base for 60 to 80 patrol deputies. Last year, Parker approached the commissioners seeking funding to replace a prefabricated building set up as a temporary facility in the mid-90s.
Brandon Bradley, the 22-year-old man who allegedly shot Pill, and 20-year-old Andria Kerchner, a woman in the vehicle at the time of the shooting, are both charged with murder and are being held in jail without bond.
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