2014 Technician of the Year
Part of the Traffic Safety Unit for the Carol Stream, IL, Police Department, Sgt. Brian Cooper started checking child passenger safety seats after becoming a Traffic Safety Officer in 2005. In 2009, Cooper was promoted to the rank of sergeant and assigned to the Patrol Division as a night shift supervisor. In 2010, he was reassigned back to the Traffic Safety Unit as supervisor. He was sworn in as a police officer in 1999 and was assigned to patrol for six years. Prior to 2005, Cooper was in the U.S. Navy for four years where he earned two Navy Achievement Medals and the rank of Second Class Petty Officer (E5). Throughout the years, Cooper has noticed a decline in child passenger safety outreach by other agencies. As a result, he fields calls from parents wanting their seats checked and personally performs the checks himself or with the help of other technicians.
Additional details about Brian and his dedication to child passenger safety can be found in the Technician of the Year press release.
The National Child Passenger Safety Board is pleased to honor Jennifer Hoekstra, coordinator for the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Injury Prevention Program , as the 2014 Child Passenger Safety Instructor of the Year. Hokestra, of Grand Rapids, MI, is a technician-instructor who has been dedicated to injury prevention for the past seven years. Hoekstra’s program featured 89 car seat check events in 2014, 30 classes and more than 15 presentations serving social service agencies within the local area. Active in committees throughout Michigan, Hoekstra enjoys presenting the standarized curriculum and takes pride in sharing life-saving and injury prevention messages within her community as a subject matter expert on the local as well as national levels.