The Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office (SRSO) is the primary law enforcement agency of

Santa Rosa County, Florida Santa Rosa County is a county located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2020, the population was 188,000. The county seat is Milton, which lies in the geographic center of the county. Other major communities withi ...

. Both the cities of

Gulf Breeze Gulf Breeze is a city in Santa Rosa County, Florida. It is located between Downtown Pensacola and Pensacola Beach, and is part of the Pensacola Metropolitan Area. The population was 6,340 at the 2020 census, up from 5,763 at the 2010 census. ...

and Milton operates their own LEOs (law enforcement organization); however, the sheriff's office operates the majority of law enforcement operations within the county. SRSO is headed by a sheriff, who serves a four-year term and is elected in a partisan

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

Offices & facilities

The main offices are in Milton. District offices are located in

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

, Pace, and

Jay Jays are a paraphyletic grouping of passerine birds within the family Corvidae. Although the term "jay" carries no taxonomic weight, most or all of the birds referred to as jays share a few similarities: they are small to medium-sized, usually ...

Administration

Sheriff *Current Sheriff: Bob Johnson. Sheriff Bob Johnson has been employed with SRSO since 1993. He was elected as Sheriff in 2016 and sworn in on January 3, 2017. He is a longstanding member of the county's SWAT Team and formerly held the post of SWAT Team Commander. During his employment with the agency, Bob has been the member of the following units: Major Crimes Detective, Narcotics Supervisor, D.A.R.E School Resource Officer, Juvenile Unit Supervisor, Patrol Corporal, Patrol Sergeant, Evening Shift Watch Commander, Navarre District Commander, Internal Affairs, Administrative Captain, Criminal Investigations Division Commander, Fleet Operations and Public Information Officer. Chief Deputy *Current Chief Deputy Sheriff: Randy Tifft Joe McCurdy was appointed as Chief Deputy Sheriff in 2023. Command Staff: Assistant Chief Shane Tucker, Colonel Randy Tifft, Major Chris Watson, Major Douglas Bringmans Administration Staff: Patrol Division: Captain Jason Erlemann Investigative Division: Captain Blevin Davis/Lieutenant Scott Jones Professional Standards: Captain Wayne Enterkin Administration: Captain Scott Haines Public Information Officer: Sgt. Rich Aloy District Field Offices: District One - Gulf Breeze Area: District Two - Navarre Area: District Three - Pace Area: District Four - East Milton Area: District Five - Jay Area : SRSO Units (in abc order) - Court Security - Crime Analysis - Crime Scene - Field Training - Honor Guard - K-9 Unit - Major Crimes - Marine / Dive - Media Relations - Narcotics - SWAT - Traffic

Rank structure

Services Provided for Citizens

*Citizens' Law Enforcement Academy * Volunteer Program * Civilian Observer ( please see website for requirements ) * Citizen's Firearm Safety * Crime prevention strategies * Crime Stoppers * Victim Assistance Program * Explorer Program * Fingerprint services * "Know The Law" booklet * ID Theft booklet

History

List of SRSO Sheriffs

*Jesse Carter Allen 1842-1845 (Interim) *William Washington Harrison 1845-1849 *James R. Mims 1849-1851 *Isaiah Cobb, Jr. 1851-1855, 1860-1861 *James C. McArthur 1855-1859 *James Milton Amos 1861-1863 *John L. McLellan 1863-1865 *Abraham.B. Dixon 1865-1867 *John W. Butler 1874-1878 *Wiliam Adam C. Benbow 1878-1881 *William Jackson 1881-1893 *John Houston Collins 1893-1897, 1909-1913 *David Mitchell 1897-1909 *John H. Harvell 1913-1921 *Henry Clay Mitchell 1921-1933 *Joseph T. Allen Sr. 1933-1945 *Marshall Rufus Hayes 1945-1957 *Bart Dell Broxson 1957-1959 *Annie Rachel Gordon Broxson 1959-1959 * John Ray Broxson 1959-1961 *Wade H. Cobb Sr. 1961-1968 *Leon Hinote Jr. 1968-1972 *Harvell Enfinger 1972-1981 *James A. Powell Sr. 1981-1985 *Elwyn Mauriece Coffman Jr. 1985-1992 *James F. Coats 1992-1992 *Jerry D. Brown 1992-2000 *Wendell Hall 2000–2016 *Bob Johnson 2016–Present

Television

The sheriff's office has a television show, hosted by Sheriff Johnson and Sgt. Rich Aloy on

Blab TV Blab TV is a local television channel in Pensacola, Florida, United States. It airs local programming as well as locally produced infomercials for businesses in the Florida Panhandle. Blab TV programming airs on local cable systems and on WPAN (c ...

, entitled "INSIDE SRSO". It is broadcast on Blab TV (Cox Channel 1006).

Postcard-only policy

In 2010, Sheriff Wendell Hall instituted a policy that prohibited inmates from sending mail in enclosed

envelopes An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a sho ...

, with the exception of privileged and legal mail. All regular correspondence was required to be done by

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. In some places, one can send a postcard f ...

. An inmate at the jail named Marcie Hamilton filed suit against the sheriff on behalf of the class of inmates at the jail, arguing the policy violated their rights under the

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. The Sheriff rescinded this policy just before the suit went to trial, and the parties settled in February 2012.

References

Notes

External links

* * * {{Fla LawEnforce Sheriffs' departments of Florida Santa Rosa County, Florida Navarre, Florida