Tulsa Sheriff Stanley Glanz commended dozens of deputies, detention officers and staff today at an annual awards ceremony.
About 50 sheriff's office employees were honored.
"Probably the most mentionable is the life saving awards. I have five employees that are receiving the life saving [awards]," Glanz said. "We have one meritorious service award that we're giving, and then there's a lot of recognition besides that."
Deputy Michael Bonin was honored for tracking a lost girl in the Chandler Park woods. Four deputies and a detention officer received life saving medals, and Glanz commended the unit that worked for more than three years investigating synthetic marijuana in Tulsa County.
Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb used his remarks to honor all law enforcement officers.
"There's no other civilian, nonmilitary job that men and women sign up for knowing that when you sign up, when others run away from danger, you're going to run toward it," Lamb said.
Glanz said the awards are a good reminder of how law enforcement agencies can help their communities.
"Law enforcement has over 1 million encounters a day in the United States, and you have one or two, three bad outcomes and everybody wants to throw rocks and stones at law enforcement," Glanz said. "But there's a lot of good things that happen every day, and that needs to be recognized."
The awards ceremony is usually held at the Tulsa County Jail. This year, however, it was held at OU Tulsa’s Schusterman Center, because it had outgrown the jail.