The Citizens Deserve a Better Sheriff

Hasn't anybody wondered why Gee has not been seen in the field for years by most Deputies? I would say start looking into the facts behind how he obtained his Pilots License for starts. Then look into where all the money went, that the office has had to endure year after year working with hundreds of Deputies shorthanded? Both Gee & Docobo have consistently shown that they could care less about the safety of their Deputies working the streets so shorthanded, yet always find the time, resources and funding for the ridiculous collection of unneeded toys. How many boats, choppers, planes and hundred thousand dollar specialty vehicles does one agency need? Millions in wasted taxpayer dollars were and are being spent on unessential David Gee toys, while his own Deputies continue to have a hard time getting a back-up unit on calls handled daily on the East side of the County. To really make the cake, Gee terminates his Deputies who get injured in the line of duty if their injuries require extended treatment? What kind of monster asks his people to put their lives on the line under his name & term as Sheriff and then fires them if they get seriously hurt and their therapy and medical treatment takes too long? He could not be any worse as a leader or as a human being.

[Average Joe]

AJ,

You need to learn how things are done now, because clearly you don't know. HCSO direct filed charges of Agg Assault and Simply Battery to the SAO. The SAO, like they do on almost every other case, dropped the agg assault and went forward on simple battery. This happens to every "regular citizen" case, they just don't care. They make a big deal of it when it is a deputy.

What else do you want Gee and Docobo to do? The guy retired, it's done and over with. There are plenty of leadership flaws and current issues at HCSO that you could use to smear them, but not this incident. The fact that Hollis came out to investigate what a regular patrol deputy would normally investigate shows you they took this incident seriously. This is old news.

No you missed the point. When someone gets into trouble and the Office wants to make sure they do not attempt to come back via the courts or Civil Service the case and the deputies name will be given to the media to be smeared. If you are one of the few or you do not want the public to know what happened they sit back and say nothing.

Was this incident ever put on the HCSO site in a press release? Why wasn't the media told about this? Why did it take some digging on the Times part to find this information out two months after the fact?

But let me ask you this. Who was the deputy that demand the videos be erased and then stood there to make sure they were? According to the paper the deputy's name was never in the report. Say what, they failed to document what actions they took at a felony scene!


I never commented about Mark Ober as we all know what a piss poor job his Office does.

One only needs to go the "Retired HCSO" Facebook page and see that no one likes this administration.

Avoiding the media doesn't mean the situation was shoved under the rug. Charges were filed against the detective in this incident and the SAO dropped the charges. Your anger and frustration (which is funny because it has nothing to do with anyone but the victim and the detective) should be directed to the SAO. You act like Gee and Docobo sat up in their castle and formulated some plan to deceive the public. They remained low-key and the investigation resulted in charges being filed.

This site is turning from disgruntled cops into conspiracy theorists. It's getting ridiculous to read.

It's your fault David...... ops:

[Average Joe]

AJ,

You need to learn how things are done now, because clearly you don't know. HCSO direct filed charges of Agg Assault and Simply Battery to the SAO. The SAO, like they do on almost every other case, dropped the agg assault and went forward on simple battery. This happens to every "regular citizen" case, they just don't care. They make a big deal of it when it is a deputy.

What else do you want Gee and Docobo to do? The guy retired, it's done and over with. There are plenty of leadership flaws and current issues at HCSO that you could use to smear them, but not this incident. The fact that Hollis came out to investigate what a regular patrol deputy would normally investigate shows you they took this incident seriously. This is old news.

No you missed the point. When someone gets into trouble and the Office wants to make sure they do not attempt to come back via the courts or Civil Service the case and the deputies name will be given to the media to be smeared. If you are one of the few or you do not want the public to know what happened they sit back and say nothing.

Was this incident ever put on the HCSO site in a press release? Why wasn't the media told about this? Why did it take some digging on the Times part to find this information out two months after the fact?

But let me ask you this. Who was the deputy that demanded the videos be erased and then stood there to make sure they were? According to the paper the deputy's name was never in the report. Say what, they failed to document what actions they took at a felony scene!


I never commented about Mark Ober as we all know what a piss poor job his Office does.

One only needs to go the "Retired HCSO" Facebook page and see that no one likes this administration.

Your definately correct "Average Joe". I was extremely hesitant to join the HCSO Alumni Association after retiring because I was very unhappy with the Sheriff Gee Staff, to include Docobo and the Risk Management section in addition to my extreme disgust for David Gee when I left. After attending a couple meetings and talking to members of the HCSO Alumni Association, I found that I was far from being alone, as nearly every member I talked to clearly voiced their dislike and downright hate for how Sheriff Gee has divided the office and basically enacted a sort of closed door policy for him, Docobo and several others on his staff. After discovering that I could talk openly without fearing retaliation, as was and still is the case for those unfortunate enough to still be employed under David Gee, as well as discovering that most HCSO Alumnists feel the same way, I gladly joined and volunteerily pay my dues to the Organization. It is honestly amazing just how many enemies David Gee has made out of people who once strongly believed in him. David Gee needs to step down from his "White Horse" and from his position as sheriff so that the healing process can begin. He has poisoned what used to be a much more family oriented Sheriff's Office and environment. He uses Docobo to spread this poisonous plague in such a manner that only the politically connected or their family members go unaffected.

Read all the citizens comments regarding the news article. I used to never agree with them because wearing a police uniform has always been one big target for complaints of every kind. People don't like anyone telling them what to do in todays "all about me" society. However, since retiring from HCSO myself and seeing a totally different side of society, I can understand much more of their frustration with cops nowadays. I apologize if this offends some who still work at HCSO, although please understand it is not meant towards all, but some of the deputies who I used to consider fellow brothers & friends, have turned into real a-holes! I'm dead serious, some apparently think that after you retire from this profession, you are somehow not worthy to talk to anymore. They act as though they are too important or too mighty to return phone calls or hang out with you after you retire. Believe me, I have moved on long ago, with the exception of a few who I still communicate with, but it really astounded me how some folks who I would have taken a bullet for if the sh#t hit the fan on a call for service, apparently no longer feel that I am worthy of their time or attention. I talked to others who have retired from HCSO as well and they tell me that some of the same exact things changed for them also. Like I said, it just struck a nerve with me that some actually treat you this way after you retire. Dealing with many of those in the Alumni Association, It is also very clear that the older retiree's did not experience the same treatment as those in the Association that retired more recently. I think again that it says a lot about todays generation of deputies and probably todays cops in general. It also certainly does not help with a administration like sheriff Gee's, where teamwork seems to almost be frowned upon.

[Average Joe]

AJ,

You need to learn how things are done now, because clearly you don't know. HCSO direct filed charges of Agg Assault and Simply Battery to the SAO.

Nothing has changed other than some deputies have gotten lazy. The Direct File was created when an officer or their employer did not want to push an issue but to appease everyone they would refer the case to the SAO. The SAO agreed to take these cases and be the bad guy in not filing in a majority of the DF's.

Today the DF is used far more than it should be because someone does not want to be the "bad guy" and stand up and do what needs to be done. This does go both ways. When the Sheriff wants a political case handled with white gloves in order not to piss off the person pushing for the prosecution you would DF and then lay the blame to the political donor on the table of the SAO.

Don't believe me, just ask any assistant SAO in the Intake Section of the SAO.

So in the case currently in the news you have either 1.) an investigator who still does not know what happened or 2.) a suspect connected and those at the scene or later on in the investigation wanted this to all go away.

Me, if you stood there and watched as videos of the incident were deleted, it is the latter.

Was this incident ever put on the HCSO site in a press release? Why wasn't the media told about this? Why did it take some digging on the Times part to find this information out two months after the fact?

But let me ask you this. Who was the deputy that demand the videos be erased and then stood there to make sure they were? According to the paper the deputy's name was never in the report. Say what, they failed to document what actions they took at a felony scene!

Sometimes I see our Media Relations members as publicists rather than public information officers. In a perfect world the office would always put out the truth and not omit newsworthy incidents. But it doesn't surprise me they tried to ignore it and hope it would go away.

The forced deletion of the video concerns me as well. It's quite clear that once the copies were made for the investigation that the deputy didn't want the citizen to have them despite being their property. I'm also curious as to which deputy did this.

The actions displayed here by the detective, investigating deputies and those working behind the scenes should sound some alarms. I think the media should be pulling E-mails from those involved.

As soon as I saw & heard that the charges were Direct Filed, It showed me right away that the office was trying to protect Pettis and guarantee you that prior talks and arrangements were already made between the Sheriff's Office and the SAO. This administration has a track record of making full custodial arrests and immediately suspending and then terminating deputies for incidents that were even far less severe then this one! The lack of oversight by a union or impartial local media has allowed Sheriff David Gee to do as he pleases and act as though he and his administration are above the law. The lack of integrity and ethics by the Gee administration is inexcusable in this day & age. Sheriff Gee doesn't just need to step down as Sheriff of Hillsborough County, he needs to be investigated and then immediately removed from the position by the Florida Governor ASAP!

Hasn't anybody wondered why Gee has not been seen in the field for years by most Deputies? I would say start looking into the facts behind how he obtained his Pilots License for starts. Then look into where all the money went, that the office has had to endure year after year working with hundreds of Deputies shorthanded? Both Gee & Docobo have consistently shown that they could care less about the safety of their Deputies working the streets so shorthanded, yet always find the time, resources and funding for the ridiculous collection of unneeded toys. How many boats, choppers, planes and hundred thousand dollar specialty vehicles does one agency need? Millions in wasted taxpayer dollars were and are being spent on unessential David Gee toys, while his own Deputies continue to have a hard time getting a back-up unit on calls handled daily on the East side of the County. To really make the cake, Gee terminates his Deputies who get injured in the line of duty if their injuries require extended treatment? What kind of monster asks his people to put their lives on the line under his name & term as Sheriff and then fires them if they get seriously hurt and their therapy and medical treatment takes too long? He could not be any worse as a leader or as a human being.

The sheriff has a pilots license?, did the S.O. or taxpayers pay for it? WTF