The Promenade at Bonita Bay had a blast hosting our First Responder Touch-A-Truck event with LCSO, Fire, and EMS.

The LCSO SWAT setup stole the show, the kids were loving it, and we definitely spotted a few adults who were just as interested! 😂

Nothing beats seeing our community come together, meeting the people behind the uniforms, and giving everyone a chance to get up close with the trucks and equipment. ❤️

Thanks to all of our first responders for making it such a fun day! 🙌

#TouchATruck #firstresponders #CommunityFun #LCSO #FireEMS #bonitabay 🚓🚒🚑 ... See MoreSee Less

🌟𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐘🌟
𝙰𝚍𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚃𝚎𝚌𝚑𝚗𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚢 𝚂𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚄𝚗𝚒𝚝: 𝚂𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝙺𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚗 𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎

Keeping up with the latest and greatest technology is a cornerstone of Sheriff Carmine Marceno’s vision for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. To that end, LCSO’s Advanced Technology Support Unit (ATSU) has grown tremendously. ATSU oversees the agency’s drone program, implementation of body-worn cameras, robot dogs, 3D printing, license plate recognition cameras, and more.

Sgt. Kevin Justice has played an integral role as ATSU has developed over the past couple of years. A Fort Myers native, Justice graduated from Cape Coral High in 2007 and opted for a career in law enforcement.

“I had family that worked for LCSO and decided to go in that direction,” he said. “After going through the academy, I began in Corrections in April of 2008. It was a great learning experience right out of high school.”

Starting at the downtown jail, Justice moved to the Core about a year later. He became part of the Corrections Emergency Response Team (CERT) in 2016. A year later, Justice began working with the Electronic Surveillance Unit to update all of the agency’s cameras in Corrections.

“I’ve always had an interest in technology, so this was something different that I was excited to learn,” he said. “It’s a complex camera system and involved a great deal of work to get everything functioning properly.”

In addition to his regular Corrections and ESU responsibilities, in 2017 Justice began supporting the agency’s Special Operations Unit as a drone and later robot dog operator. During SOU callouts, he flew mini drones as needed in tactical situations.

During the Bank of America attempted heist/hostage situation in Feb. 2024, Sgt. Justice was operating Robbie the robot dog that provided critical information including live images of suspect Sterling Alavache holding a knife to the throat of a bank employee before an SOU sniper shot and killed the suspect.

“That was my most memorable use of the robot dog,” he recalled. “Robbie played a vital role because the guy was crouched down and hiding from the regular bank cameras, but we were able to see him folding and unfolding the knife as he held it to the woman’s neck.”

Promoted to Master Corporal in 2022, Justice also joined the Corrections Shakedown Team for a three-month period before being promoted to Sergeant in 2023. He went back to the Core for about six months to work on another camera project before returning to HQ as part of ATSU.

Working for Cmdr. Fred Mazzotta, Sgt. Justice’s first big assignment was the roll out of body-worn cameras for the agency. At that time, ATSU was also transitioning its drone program from Chinese-manufactured models per an edict from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over security concerns.

Sgt. Justice is also the agency’s primary robot dog operator and is coordinating the Drone as First Responder (DFR) program. It’s one of LCSO’s newest programs and currently DFR drones are located at four precincts along with a fire station and EMS facility. Additionally, he is instrumental in the agency’s new Axon body camera rollout.

In listing the challenges of his role, Sgt. Justice mentioned the ever-changing world of technological advancement.

“Keeping up with all the projects we have in ATSU, especially when every project is a priority can be challenging,” he said. “We’re here to support each unit in the agency. We’ve just trained every CSU member to be a drone pilot, and we now have 68 pilots, plus two new DFR pilots. The rewarding part is we’re sort of R & D for new products and new technology that companies want us to demo. Some of those will help LCSO in the future.”

Next week Sgt. Justice and Capt. Chris Fine will travel to New York City with the robot dog for appearances during the studio portion of the television series On Patrol Live. Justice will demonstrate Robbie’s capabilities.

Away from work, Kevin enjoys lifting weights (he’s trimmed down from 275 pounds when he was a powerlifter to 215 now), spending time with his wife, Melissa, and the couple’s two children ages 13 and 7. Melissa and Kevin were high school sweethearts who married in 2008 and will celebrate their 18th anniversary this weekend. ... See MoreSee Less