Sgt. Brian Noel appreciates the “can do” attitude that Mercer Island city employees exemplify while working their multi-faceted jobs.

“I love that spirit and it reflects my personal values,” said the Island police officer for the last 30 years.

Noel will carry that work ethic with him along the next path of his life following his retirement from the department. Noel — who has a United States Coast Guard masters license — has enjoyed his lengthy law-enforcement career and is now set to step aboard various vessels in the Puget Sound area as a part-time skipper.

The city’s Marine Patrol/Dive Team supervisor has told Chief Ed Holmes that they’ve been paying him to pursue his hobbies for 30 years.

“Guess that goes with the old adage ‘do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,’” said Noel, who was also a detective, special operations team member, emergency vehicle driving instructor, field training officer and more at the department and garnered officer of the year and supervisor of the year honors several times.

He recently earned another Top Gun Trophy for achieving the highest overall accumulated score — determined by measuring speed, accuracy/marksmanship and decision making — during each of the year’s multiple firearms training sessions. The department will rename the award after him in his honor.

Holmes said that Noel has made significant contributions to the department over the last three decades.

“He has played an active role in most of our department’s special teams, and has been the leader of many of them. In his most recent assignment, he has been in charge of the Marine Patrol and the Police Dive Team. He has consistently done an outstanding job throughout his career, and he will be greatly missed,” Holmes said.

Noel feels that having integrity and pride in one’s arsenal and being a team player are crucial parts to the job and life in general.

“Be that with your patrol partner, squad, SWAT teammate, dive buddy, wife, family. Having each other’s back, having their best interest at heart, and they you, working together towards common goals. I have accomplished a lot being a member of such teams,” he said.

He cherishes the working relationships that he’s developed with community members, along with the lessons he learned from senior officers to relay to new officers, and the family like bonds the he shared with officers on the Island and in other agencies.