When Gregory Beary\u2019s badge was first pinned onto his Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office uniform last week, he became the latest Beary to carry on the family tradition of public service and sacrifice.<\/p>\n
The Beary name is synonymous with law enforcement in Central Florida, and the family\u2019s roots in the field run four generations deep. So when Greg, who already earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in criminal justice from UCF, graduated from Valencia College\u2019s Criminal Justice Institute last week, it was naturally a family affair.<\/p>\n
Dad Richard Beary, chief of UCF Police, was the ceremony\u2019s keynote speaker. Other members of the family joined them on stage to pin on Greg\u2019s badge, a custom for new officers with family in law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Of his family\u2019s commitment to protecting and serving, Greg said: \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve gotten used to over time, but I know that other people who aren\u2019t in law enforcement don\u2019t completely understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg was among the 27 recruits to complete the academy, which included nearly 800 hours of academic coursework, physical fitness and other training since September. The morning after his graduation, he started as a patrol deputy at the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office, where his colleagues include sister Jillian and aunt Noel.<\/p>\n
Growing up, Greg and Jillian were no strangers to the sound of police radios or talk about local crime trends, their dad said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re a cop, things happen 24\/7, so my kids sort of grew up in a patrol car,\u201d said Beary. \u201cThey couldn\u2019t help but be drawn to law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how it went for him, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew very early on what I wanted to do,\u201d said the chief about following in his father\u2019s and brother\u2019s steps of becoming a police officer in Central Florida. His father, Ray, was the chief of Maitland and Winter Park, and his older brother, Kevin, was the former Orange County Sheriff.<\/p>\n
He went on to graduate from the police academy at Seminole State College. At the time\u20141977\u2014he was 18 and the youngest officer in Florida. The chief completed the academy before he even finished high school, and at first he was too young to buy his own gun and bullets, so his parents had to.<\/p>\n
After first working for the Altamonte Springs Police Department, he went on to become the police chief of Lake Mary before joining UCF as chief in 2007, the same year that Greg started classes at UCF.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gone through some really bad days as a cop, but the good ones outnumber them,\u201d said Beary. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned over the last 36 years is once the badge goes on, it never comes off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Gregory Beary\u2019s badge was first pinned onto his Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office uniform last week, he became the latest Beary to carry on the family tradition of public service and sacrifice. The Beary name is synonymous with law enforcement in Central Florida, and the family\u2019s roots in the field run four generations deep. So when Greg, who already earned…","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":57590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,27],"tags":[3978,4114,202,4911,5030],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-57589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-student-life","tag-richard-beary","tag-safety","tag-alumni","tag-ucf-police-department","tag-valencia-college"],"yoast_head":"\n