The Osceola County Sheriff's Office is the largest and chief law enforcement agency in
Osceola County, Florida
Osceola County (, ) is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 388,656. Its county seat is Kissimmee. Osceola County is included in the Orlando–Kissimmee– Sanford, Fl ...
, located in
Kissimmee
Kissimmee ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Osceola County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 79,226. It is a Principal City of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area, wh ...
. Per the State of Florida Constitution, the Sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer of both the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county. The current Sheriff is Marcos R. Lopez, the 20th sheriff of the county and the first Hispanic to serve as a Sheriff in the county. The agency has over 700 employees and serves a population of 390,341. Osceola County deputies patrol which include Kissimmee,
St. Cloud,
Celebration, and
Poinciana as well as several other unincorporated communities.
History
The Osceola County Sheriff's Office has been a CFA-
accredited
Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
law enforcement agency since 1999.
In 2021, a video went viral of a deputy slamming a student to the ground.
In February 2022, the office charged one of its own deputies with culpable negligence after he
tased
A taser is an electroshock weapon used to incapacitate people, allowing them to be approached and handled in an unresisting and thus safe manner. It is sold by Axon, formerly TASER International. It fires two small barbed darts intended to ...
a suspect at a gas station and lit spilled gasoline, the subject, and himself on fire. In April, two deputies killed a man and injured two others in a Target parking lot: they were suspected of shoplifting
Pokemon cards and
pizza
Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...
. Sheriff Lopez asked the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is a state-wide investigative law enforcement agency within the state of Florida. The department formally coordinates eight boards, councils, and commissions. FDLE's duties, responsibilities and ...
to investigate the incident, but later said he did not intend to make changes to the department's tactics.
Divisions
Enforcement Bureau
*Uniform Patrol
*Aviation Unit
*Mounted Patrol Unit
*HIDTA Task Force
*IRS Task Force
*FBI-JTTF
Criminal Investigations Division
*East Property Crimes
*West Property Crimes
*Economic Crimes
*Persons Crimes
*Sex Crimes/Child Abuse
*Crime Analysis/Intelligence
*Robbery
*Violent Crimes
*Evidence Unit
*Forensics
Specialty Units
*
SWAT
In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...
*Emergency Response Team
*Agriculture/Marine
*Community Response Team
*K-9 Unit
*Tourism Policing Unit
*Traffic/DUI Unit
*Gang Unit
*N.E.T.
*O.C.I.B.
Administrative Bureau
*Civilian Volunteers
*Civil Process
*Communications
*Community Services
*Court Services
*Crime Prevention
*Fleet Maintenance
*Records
*Information Management
*Quality Assurance and Accreditation
*Research and Development
*School Resource
*Training
*Warrants
*K9-Unit
References
External links
Osceola County Sheriff's Office (Official site)
{{Fla LawEnforce
Osceola County, Florida
Sheriffs' departments of Florida