Sheriff Tom Knight closes law enforcement operations in south county

[Unregistered]

If Knight has any kind of integrity he will hold Hoffman accountable for his actions. That being said nothing is going to happen. If it was a deputy he would no doubt fire them.

Neither has integrity. As a working force, Hoffman, the lawyer, has always protected and enabled Knight. And Hoffman has been rewarded by money and promotions.

[Unregistered]

Sarasota South County travel times to North County:

• Calculations are for one-way trips (double the time to return home)
  .
• Interstate calculation is based on it not being backed up, which is increasingly rare, due to exploding traffic and population growth:

VENICE — When Sheriff Tom Knight closed the Venice substation, he shut a door to South County that had been open since the 1970s, serving South Venice, Venice Gardens, Englewood, Warm Mineral Springs and other unincorporated areas, as a place to file reports and ask for help face-to-face.

Sheriff Tom Knight said that since he moved his main headquarters to Cattleridge Blvd., which is between Fruitville and Bee Ridge Roads, it makes sense to close the South County substation. To file reports, Knight is asking residents to call by phone through the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office’s smartphone app or visit him online at SarasotaSheriff.org

Retired Lt. John Kost called Knight’s actions “a long-term degradation of service” in one of the fastest-growing communities in Southwest Florida. “This is a step backwards, in the wrong direction. You can’t take away 20 years of building-up manpower, based on growth – and suddenly take it away – and then tell people that ‘it will be better.’ My in-laws are in their 80s and they don’t like driving on the interstate [to visit north Sarasota County]. It is only a 3 to 4 mile away for them to drive to the South County substation. However, all people in south county are now being forced to drive north,” said Kost, who worked for the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office for 31 years, serving on SWAT and as a watch commander in South County.

Meanwhile, the Manatee Sheriff’s Office is expanding. It created a new substation for fast-growing Lakewood Ranch for people to drop in to see a deputy or file a report in person, said Manatee Sheriff’s spokesman Randy Warren. “It’s the same concept as a precinct.”

The Sarasota South County substation generated over 10,000 reports over the past five years, but that does not include all the people who contacted desk officers, but did not file formal reports. Sarasota Sheriff’s spokeswoman Kaitlyn Perez cited the “infrequency of walk-ins” as the reason for the closure of the substation. The Herald-Tribune requested the exact number of walk-ins, but Perez said she could not provide actual numbers. She did say that the substation will be used for [off-duty] training, meetings and as a remote office for Knight.

Walter Ernst, president of the South Venice Civic Association, said that while the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office will be still be accessible via its website and social media, he worries that may not be enough. “To me, it’s a bit concerning that they’re closing it down, with the idea that social media can fill the void. I think having an actual presence in the community should outweigh social media.”

Maureen Holland, a South Venice resident said…

Full story:
https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/2...-draws-concern

Walter Ernst, president of the South Venice Civic Association:
http://southvenicebeach.org/

[Unregistered]

I finally took the time to watch this interaction between John and Paul. Paul, if you feel threatened by someone pushing papers at you please don't ever leave the office. You are an embarrassment to law enforcement. This guy is telling people how and when to use force and he is threatended by a piece of paper! This is who is "leading" the law enforcement division? Somebody give that guy a participation trophy and a box of tissues.

[Unregistered]

I finally took the time to watch this interaction between John and Paul. Paul, if you feel threatened by someone pushing papers at you please don't ever leave the office. You are an embarrassment to law enforcement. This guy is telling people how and when to use force and he is threatended by a piece of paper! This is who is "leading" the law enforcement division? Somebody give that guy a participation trophy and a box of tissues.

Paul got defensive. A colleague described his behavior towards John as being "dismissive." Paul got a little bit holier than thou when he repeatedly said to Kost, "John, don't do this!" (or else what is going to happen?). I believe that John Kost will win the next sheriff's election, but nonetheless, it's going to get very tense because people with power and money don't give it up easily, unless they are forced out.

My advice to John for every televised interview is to always take a deep breath, even though you may have a compunction to "fill the airtime with talking" -- and calmly and SLOWLY articulate your intellectual position. On TV, slower or more deliberate responses are always always always better. An expert will always pause for the camera, at just the right time. Timing is everything. It's an unnatural art that frequently goes against instinct. In most cases, it must be learned.

[Media]

I looked at our community policing substations in Newtown and Englewood — taking up space and making residents come to us. I closed those substations. Sounds like better service, if you ask me. Sarasota is not Miami.

• Today, a [north county] front-desk deputy [who sits behind a desk] takes a report.
• It is then assigned to a detective who interviews the victim(s) and/or suspect(s) in an interview room [in north county].
• The detective then submits evidence for forensic processing.
• Once processing is complete, the detective drafts a probable-cause affidavit and heads out to make an arrest.

The days of sitting behind a desk and waiting for citizen walk-ins is antiquated.

Two of the four [south county desk officers] are being merged into the [north county] desk and two are….

Full story:
https://www.heraldtribune.com/opinio...ce-come-to-you

[Unregistered]

All this from a guy who NEVER worked a day as a deputy! Thank you for abandoning the community that you say you serve. Sheriff, if you would take the time to listen to the radio you would hear "any unit in the area of" often. Ths means we no longer have a deputy to send to the people you say we serve. The current population growth shows we need more "boots on the ground" as you would say and maybe less management. This is what you get when a Sheriff is more interested in his own post retirement political aspirations than his current appointment.

[Unregistered]

All this from a guy who NEVER worked a day as a deputy! Thank you for abandoning the community that you say you serve. Sheriff, if you would take the time to listen to the radio you would hear "any unit in the area of" often. Ths means we no longer have a deputy to send to the people you say we serve. The current population growth shows we need more "boots on the ground" as you would say and maybe less management. This is what you get when a Sheriff is more interested in his own post retirement political aspirations than his current appointment.

That is a technical nuance that civilians will not understand (or they will only marginally understand it).

I remember hearing that the SSO patrol division is "25 deputies short of full staffing." Is there a way to get an official document that can be published here, to show that to the public?

[Unregistered]

I looked at our community policing substations in Newtown and Englewood — taking up space and making residents come to us. I closed those substations. Sounds like better service, if you ask me. Sarasota is not Miami.

• Today, a [north county] front-desk deputy [who sits behind a desk] takes a report.
• It is then assigned to a detective who interviews the victim(s) and/or suspect(s) in an interview room [in north county].
• The detective then submits evidence for forensic processing.
• Once processing is complete, the detective drafts a probable-cause affidavit and heads out to make an arrest.

The days of sitting behind a desk and waiting for citizen walk-ins is antiquated.

Two of the four [south county desk officers] are being merged into the [north county] desk and two are….

All this from a guy who NEVER worked a day as a deputy! Thank you for abandoning the community that you say you serve. Sheriff, if you would take the time to listen to the radio you would hear "any unit in the area of" often. Ths means we no longer have a deputy to send to the people you say we serve. The current population growth shows we need more "boots on the ground" as you would say and maybe less management.

It will be interesting to see if citizens can see through the smoke and mirrors of Knight's expository explanation.

The jury is still out. It appears that Knight expects citizens to believe him "just because it's him." However, he needs a dose of reality because he is a garden variety Joe who is wearing a uniform. The uniform is obviously special, while he is not, except in his own mind, of course.

[Unregistered]

There used to be staffing rosters but there were always an internal one and one for the public/press. The truth of the matter is that knightmare and Herr Hoffy will just lie and say that those vacancies are covered by "other" deputies. They'll say that detectives or supervisors are covering those calls for service. This would be much like the lie FlipFlop Paul said when he said that detectives work out of their cars.

[Unregistered]

This would be much like the lie FlipFlop Paul said when he said that detectives work out of their cars.

Yeaa that lie caught me off guard because we never work out of our cars per se.