The Orange County Sheriff's Office is the chief

law enforcement agency A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

for

Orange County, Florida Orange County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the county had a population of 1,429,908, making it the fifth-most populous county in Florida and the List of ...

. The office is large with a budget of more than $300 million and over 2,700 sworn and civilian employees. The current sheriff, John Mina, was elected in a 2018 special election, and is the chief law enforcement officer of Orange County responsible for the safety of over one million residents and the more than 72 million tourists that visit Orange County each year.

History

The first sheriff of Orange County dates from the earliest days of Florida's statehood in 1845. On January 31, 1845, the area known as Mosquito County in Territorial Florida was renamed Orange County, a name reflective of the spreading blanket of orange groves throughout the region. Less than six weeks later, on March 3, 1845, Florida's status as a territory was changed to that of statehood. The first statewide election was conducted on May 26, 1845. William Henry Williams was elected to serve as Orange County's first sheriff. Since 1845, numerous prominent individuals have held the position of the Orange County sheriff, including David William Mizell. Mizell was the only sheriff killed in the line of duty. There have been numerous theories and tales regarding the story which led to his demise, ranging from the local tradition of the

Barber–Mizell feud The Barber–Mizell feud was a feud in Brevard and Orange counties, Florida in 1870 resulting in 41 deaths and no criminal convictions that arose when cattle baron Mose Barber disputed the jurisdiction of Orange County Sheriff and tax collec ...

to Reconstruction politics to a lawman simply attempting to do his additional duty of levying fines and collecting taxes. In 2000, during a hostage standoff in Orlando, a SWAT team sniper accidentally shot a hostage instead of the hostage-taker. The city and the OCSO settled with the hostage's family for $3.9 million dollars, with OCSO paying $1.9 million. In 2004, state senator Gary Siplin stated that the OCSO routinely used deadly force against unarmed

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

. Together with the Orlando Police Department, the OCSO responded to the 2016

Orlando nightclub shooting On , 2016, 29-year-old Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States before Orlando Police officers fatally shot him after a three-hour standoff. I ...

Notable people

* Sandy Adams, investigator, later member of the

Florida House of Representatives The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the C ...

(2002–2010) and US House (2011–2013) *

Kevin Beary Kevin Beary (born May 12, 1957) was Sheriff from 1993 to 2009 of Orange County, Florida, United States, heading the Orange County Sheriff's Office (Florida), Orange County Sheriff's Office, one of the largest law enforcement bodies in the Southe ...

, sheriff (1993–2009) * Jerry Demings, sheriff (2009–2018)

Rank structure

The order of rank for the agency is as follows:https://public.powerdms.com/ORCSO/documents/301278 Sworn ranks * Sheriff * Undersheriff * Bureau chief deputy (bureau commander) * Major (division commander) * Captain (section/sector commander) * Lieutenant * Sergeant * Corporal * Deputy sheriff first class ** Master deputy ** Detective ** Agent * Deputy sheriff ** Detective ** Agent ** Trainee *Court security deputy *Reserve deputy *Auxiliary deputy

List of sheriffs

*Walter Gallagher *

* Jerry Demings * John Mina

Notes

External links