By Tamas Mondovics
The first order of business for the new year at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Bloomingdale Community Substation’s monthly meeting was something area residents have been anticipating since last summer.
While addressing a number of changes for the coming year, the small group of regular attendees gathered last month at the station, 3622 Erindale Dr., in Valrico, also welcomed HCSO Deputy James Brodie as the community’s new full time resource deputy.
A graduate of Armwood High School, Brodie, 47, a local resident and a 23-year veteran with the Sheriff’s Office, is ready to take on his new role in place of Deputy Luke Hussey, who accepted the position in August of 2016 following the retirement of Master Deputy Curtis Warren.
Warren served the Bloomingdale community as CRD since 2010, following the retirement of Pete Maurer, who served the station for 12 years.
Hussey, was also serving as the Gibsonton CRD and was chosen to fill in for Warren, on a potentially permanent basis, until HCSO’s District 4 Major Robert Bullara decided to let Brodie take the helm in Bloomingdale.
“This was a sensible decision and allows our resource deputies to focus on their own communities,” Bullara said.
Brodie joined HCSO as a U.S. Navy veteran in 1994, and has served in a number of positions within the department, which included a seven-year-long assignment as resource deputy at Eisenhower Middle School in Apollo Beach.
“I am a people person,” Brodie said. “It is great to be back into this phase of law enforcement and to work closely with residents in the community again.”
“I am honored and feel privileged to have been chosen as the Bloomingdale Community Resource Deputy,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction. I am very impressed with the members of this community, their involvement and their passion to ensure the safety and the security of their community and neighborhood.”
Brodie wants to focus on local projects such as neighborhood clean ups and the annual drug take back event, while promoting vigilance on the part of each member of the community.
“One of the biggest issues we have to deal with is crime of opportunity,” he said. To contact the Sheriff’s Office, Bloomingdale Community Substation, please call 242-5501.
