The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) Aviation Unit has now partnered with Gulf Shores and Orange Beach for the third-straight year to assist with rescue swimmer flights, highlighted in a meeting at Gulf State Park with both state and local officials uniting behind water and beach safety.

Senator Chris Elliott, who was in attendance at the Thursday, June 20, ALEA press conference, recently secured an additional $400k in funding to support ALEA’s Aviation Unit, which provides the helicopter for these patrol flights across state beaches.

“Since my time on the County Commission here in Baldwin County, we have struggled with finding a way to effectively rescue swimmers in distress all along Alabama’s beaches,” Elliott said. “What you have here is the best interagency, multi-jurisdictional partnership that I have ever seen, using lifeguards from Orange Beach, lifeguards from Gulf Shores and state resources like this helicopter.”

ALEA provides the aircraft and pilot to fly and deploy rescue swimmers directly to distressed individuals, while also conducting routine beach safety flights to help patrol areas without a lifeguard presence. These efforts mostly take place as the need drastically increases during different holiday periods, also throughout high-risk windows as agency officials monitor threatening forecasts (like recent days with double red flags flying on the coast).

“This ability to drop a rescue person with a person in trouble, and swim them in, is so much better than anything we’ve seen before because it puts both of them in a better position to survive the event,” Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft added. “We’re delighted to be part of this, and to be partners with Orange Beach, Fort Morgan and the state is a great opportunity for us to work together, which we enjoy doing and need to do more.”

For context on efficiency, it only takes the ALEA Aviation Unit roughly six minutes to travel from Gulf State Park to Fort Morgan in the event of any potential emergency.

“All of our rescuer swimmers and lifeguards are fearless,” Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon said. “There’s not enough adoration that we could show or give them to prove their worth. I’m just so appreciative of them and what they do. I’d say that this money is the best money ever spent because it is going to save lives.”