We hope you have been paying attention to the news just south of us. Orange County Commissioners approved OCSO's raises and step plan. With all this scrambling to hire new Deputies (which very few will be able to call themselves a real cop- Jesus, I swear they get weaker by the year) one would think it would be wise to try to be competitive with the surrounding agencies, lest these new, wondrous, degree-toting millennials get sick of working for civilians, doing SARA "projects" (Here's a solution, go find a problem!) or being code enforcement with a gun, and decide to apply to be a real cop elsewhere.

With the homestead exemption and the school safety bills looming on the horizon this year, I hope at least one of you upstairs is paying attention. You think this place is "green" now? Do you have *any* idea how many tenured people are processing with other agencies right now? Do you care?

Also... the most recent promotions. JR was a good one, nicely done. AB and JB? Seriously? And then you have the balls to say this is the first time a promotion has never caused controversy? JB was a lazy, call-dodging slug on patrol and then put in for motors where he could not ride a motorcycle on duty due to “vertigo”, yet while on light duty he rode his personal motorcycle to and from work... brilliant.

AB is one of the most worthless Deputies we have at this agency. Could not handle the road, so he goes to schools. He constantly left his school to go assist the road (He can fill out a tow sheet like nobody's business) then lies and tries to start an IA about another Deputy not being at the detail that he was actually at because of a personal issue with him. Not to mention the fact that if you listened to the radio *at all* during the day, this idiot could not stop transmitting on the primary channel for the most trivial school related matters. He is an absolute coward that let a 15 year old girl dictate a physical confrontation, and put him on light duty. He is 6'5 and easily 300 lbs. The guy has almost NO patrol experience and you decide to put him in charge of a squad of mostly 2 year or less deputies. I can't wait to see how this turns out. But then again, how much patrol experience do you actually have? Not much if memory serves correctly.

People who have never done anything in their careers get promoted, and in turn promote the same type of people. There are very few real cops left in the chain of command. You ran the last damn good one out. SB.

This is not a corporation. I don't lay it all at your feet Sheriff, this place was already in a hole before you officially took over, but you and your civilian "chiefs" have kept the digging at a furious pace. I doubt we'll be able to recover by the time your successor gets into office.

Maybe we should add another 15 PIOs? Or finishing stickering up that new ice cream truck? Or take that shiny new bearcat for a spin? Or make that final payment on that new helicopter with your name on the side of it that we don't need (after sinking almost 1 mil in Alert 1’s camera system)... all while touting how amazing and progressive this place is. Maybe you’ll get 3%, but now we need to add another 15 SRO’s. And health insurance is going up again.

If the public knew we pulled nearly 40 Deputies off the road to cover schools that don't really need a Deputy at them, and how critically understaffed we on the road have been for the last 3 years, they would be absolutely disgusted. The media tour when this was going on was appalling. We have a "cop" (used loosely) at your kids school doing nothing; but no one in your neighborhood during the day or night. Where are your priorities? Wait... we already know. On social media, making sure we look like the friendliest cops around. Quick, get your eclipse glasses on!

Oh, and don’t even get me started on that School Therapy K9 bullshit. What a complete and utter joke. Agencies around the country are laughing at us.

You say your employees are your most valuable asset. It sure as hell doesn't feel like it when we've been denied PTO due to staffing, we're covering 2-3 zones at a time, have supervisors that can’t make decisions, won't hold subordinates accountable, and refuse to tell people to clear BS calls and cover their zone.

What makes people happy? Working for competent people who have done the job, and having enough money to provide for their families, and when you establish a minimum staffing level, enforce that limit.
None of which we have here.

The mass exodus is going to be glorious. These new kids you've hired... they're gone once they get a year or so under their belt, and realize this agency is not about police work, nor is it about ensuring we pay our people a decent wage. I'm sure OPD and OCSO will appreciate the tenured new hires you'll have given them in a few years. And I’ll I bet they’ll be able to hand out ice cream like nobody’s business.

This is not Disney. Stop trying to make "magic" happen. New guns, toys and the elimination of the rank structure are not going to keep people here. A decent wage and feeling like we're working for people who know how to do the job that we do, will. We are a Law Enforcement Agency. Not a customer retention division at a corporation.

You’re all about member engagement right? Where was our input on the new zone restructuring? Never once were we asked what we thought or did we hear about how our input was valued. It was just an email and Boom! Here are your new zones. Utterly ridiculous.

By the way, you said you wouldn't pull any more people for specialized units until the road was fully staffed, which you held true on. But you didn't say you wouldn’t create and staff a new specialized unit.... more proof that staffing and patrol is not your priority.

This property crimes task force stupidity is a lawsuit waiting to happen. You have allowed the absolute worst from every division to band together and run around in jeans and tactical vests picking up warrants, making under 20 and DWLS arrests, and straight up crashing their cars into suspects in neighboring counties. You loved Clutter and Ducharme terrorizing sanford until they got caught doing something incredibly stupid and unlawful. You eventually terminate them for it, and now you create a unit and sanction them to do the exact. same. shit. Brilliant!

Also, you give civilians 6 paid days off (that isn’t deducted from their PTO) for the hurricane, but only give mandatory responders 1 admin reward day? Civilians continue getting the preferential treatment, While those of us that worked 10+ days in a row with no power at home are getting screwed- again.

The only thing that will make me believe in magic will be if you're not re-elected. You're awful. I've never met a more disingenuous and fake person in a position of power. We *all* see it.

A bad manager can take a good workplace and destroy it. You're driving people away, and those that are stuck are so upset and disgruntled that no one is motivated to do anything anymore.

No one trusts you or the rest of the administration. You’ve made it clear you don’t care that people are leaving for more money elsewhere. Really? That’s your answer?

Maybe if you dropped the politician facade and came out to calls with patrol every once and awhile, you'd earn some respect from us. At least Eslinger had some real cop work under his belt.

I’m gonna drag my fifth wheel down to one of the schools and contemplate every decision in my life that led me to this agency.

We know you’re going to demote MD and BL. Screw the good people while you astronomically promote a guy that had only been here 7 years. How was his wedding by the way? It was all over his Facebook that you officiated it. How did that feel to see his face all over the news? Realizing the extent of his sexual deviance after already knowing he’d done this shit before? That’s Captain quality at SCSO. More quality control through your amazing “leadership”.

I bet Eslinger is absolutely livid with what you’ve done to this place.

In the almost 20 years I’ve been here, I’ve never been more ashamed to wear this uniform than I am now.

#WeAreSCSO