The Escambia County Sheriff's Office (ECSO) or Escambia Sheriff's Office (ESO) is the primary law enforcement agency of unincorporated Escambia County and the town of Century.[1] ECSO is headed by a sheriff, who serves a four-year term and is elected in a partisan election.[2] The current sheriff is Chip W. Simmons.
The Escambia County Sheriff's Office is headed by a sheriff. Currently, the Sheriff is Chip W. Simmons who replaced former Sheriff David Morgan in 2021. Simmons was previously Chief of Police for the City of Pensacola, Florida, in Escambia County, Florida.
Chief Deputy
The rank of chief deputy is the second-highest rank in the Office, reporting directly to the Sheriff. Each chief deputy serves as a member of the senior command staff and assists the sheriff in managing civilian and commissioned personnel.[3]
Precincts
Central Booking Division: 1700 West Leonard Street, Pensacola
Big Lagoon (2nd Precinct) Substation: 12950 Gulf Beach Highway, Pensacola
South (Warrington) Pensacola (3rd Precinct) Substation: 20 North Navy Blvd., Pensacola
North Pensacola (4th Precinct) Substation: 97 W. Hood Drive. Pensacola
Cantonment/Molino (5th Precinct) Substation: 5844 North Hwy 29, Molino
Century (6th Precinct) Substation: 7500 North Century Blvd., Century
Rank structure
Title
Insignia
Sheriff
Chief Deputy
Commander
Colonel
Major
Captain
Lieutenant
Sergeant
Deputy First Class
Deputy
Before October 2013, the sheriff had control over the Escambia County Jail, located at 2935 North L Street, but after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation reported that the jail did not provide required minimum services and was chronically understaffed,[4] the jail was moved under the direct supervision of the County Commissioners.[5] In April 2014 a natural gas explosion rocked the jail, causing some to reconsider the wisdom of direct Commission administration.[6]
The office of sheriff was established with the transfer from Spain in 1821. The Spanish title Alguazil was initially used for the office. Henri Peire, a former privateer and colonel in the United States Army, was named the first sheriff by General Andrew Jackson.[7][8]
On 23 August 1877, the notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin was arrested by Sheriff William H. Hutchinson working with Texas Rangers Lt. John B. Armstrong and Jack R. Duncan, accompanied by nine deputies.[9]
In the 21st century relations between the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and federal law enforcement were occasionally strained. In 2005 under Sheriff McNesby, disagreements over the release of information in drug cases led to a monthlong stand-off between the sheriff's office and the U.S. Attorney's office, which was only settled by the intervention of three federal judges.[10][11][12] In September 2012, the Civil Rights Division completed its report on excessive use of force by the Escambia Sheriff's Office,[13] that together with the Department of Justice's 2013 report on the inadequate status of the Escambia jail further exacerbated relations.[5] In February 2015 Sheriff Morgan severed ties with both the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force headed by the FBI, and the U.S. Marshal's Regional Fugitive Task Force, pulling the deputies assigned to those duties. Again the issue was one of information dissemination.[14] In December 2015 agreement was reached with the U.S. Attorney's office in Tallahassee to rejoin both task forces.[15]
Controversy arose in 2013 when ECSO deputies shot a 60-year-old unarmed man in his driveway.[16][17]
The canines of the sheriff's office received national honors at the U.S. Police Canine Association National Police Dog Trials in October 2014, where they had the top team scores.[18][19]
Before leaving office in early 2021, Sheriff David Morgan used $75,000 in office funds to commission a life-sized metal statue of himself. He said his intent was use the figure of himself saluting as an addition to the office's memorial to fallen officers. The new Sheriff Chip Simmons declined to install the statue in front of the office's main entrance.[20]
Sixteen policemen from this agency have died in the line of duty.[23]
Television
The sheriff's office produces a television show, every other Tuesday, entitled Your Escambia County Sheriff’s Report. It is broadcast on Blab TV (Cox Channel 1006).[24]
In 2015 the Escambia sheriff's office was twice featured on the reality program Cops.[25][26]
↑ Problems at the jail included de facto racial segregation and inadequate health-care access. Nickinson, Shannon (18 February 2015). "The man with the plan". Studer Community Institute. Archived from the original on 30 November 2015.
↑ Appleyard, John (2007). The Peacekeepers: the Story of Escambia County, Florida's 43 Sheriffs. Pensacola, Florida: publisher not listed. OCLC712733262.
↑ Other records show a man named William Loftin, a resident of the Oyster Bay/St. Andrews area (modern day Panama City) as being appointed sheriff of "Florida's Western District," another designation for the territory west of the Suwannee River. (Appleyard 2007) However, it was William M. Loftin who, in 1823, became sheriff of Jackson County to the east of Escambia County, but also west of the Suwannee. Houpt, Ann Pratt (2003). Parker. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. p.1. ISBN978-0-7385-1529-8.
↑ In November 2016, Sheriff David Morgan was re-elected to the 2017-2020 four-year term with 73% of the votes. "Escambia County Election Results". North Escambia (News). 9 November 2016.
↑ In November 2020, Chip Simmons was elected to the 2021-2024 four-year term with 63% of the votes. "Escambia County Election Results". WEAR (News). 9 November 2020.
Escambia County is the westernmost and oldest county in the U.S. state of Florida. It is in the state's northwestern corner. At the 2020 census, the population was 321,905. Its county seat and largest city is Pensacola. Escambia County is included within the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county population has continued to increase as the suburbs of Pensacola have developed.
Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida. Pensacola is the principal city of the Pensacola Metropolitan Area, which had an estimated 502,629 residents in 2019. At the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312.
Pensacola Beach is an unincorporated community located on Santa Rosa Island, a barrier island, in Escambia County, Florida, United States. It is situated south of Pensacola in the Gulf of Mexico. As of the 2000 census, the community had a total population of 2,738. It has been described as "famous" for its ultra-white sand beaches.
The Pensacola News Journal is a daily morning newspaper serving Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida. It is Northwest Florida's most widely read daily.
Pensacola High School is a secondary school located near downtown Pensacola, Florida, United States.
Jon Gregory Litton is a former infielder-outfielder in Major League Baseball drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 1st round of the 1984 amateur draft. He played for the San Francisco Giants (1989-1992), Seattle Mariners (1993), and Boston Red Sox (1994).
Jeff Van Camp Sr. is an American police officer and retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Association and Southeast Championship Wrestling in the mid-1980s under his real name and the ring name Lord Humongous.
Escambe was a Spanish Franciscan mission built in the 17th century in the Florida Panhandle, three miles northwest of the present-day town of Tallahassee, Florida. It was part of Spain's effort to colonize the region, and convert the Timucuan and Apalachee Indians to Christianity. The mission lasted until 1704, when it was destroyed by a group of Creek Indians and South Carolinians.
It is very rare for snow to fall in the U.S. state of Florida, especially in the central and southern portions of the state. With the exception of the far northern areas of the state, most of the major cities in Florida have never recorded measurable snowfall, though trace amounts have been recorded, or flurries in the air observed few times each century. According to the National Weather Service, in the Florida Keys and Key West there is no known occurrence of snow flurries since the European colonization of the region more than 300 years ago. In Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach there has been only one known report of snow flurries observed in the air in more than 200 years; this occurred in January 1977. In any event, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach have not seen snow flurries before or since this 1977 event.
U.S. Route 29 in the State of Florida is the westernmost south-to-north U.S. route in the state. It runs 43.6 miles (70.2 km) from downtown Pensacola north to the Alabama state line entirely within Escambia County. US 29 runs as a four-lane highway through much of the panhandle, becoming six lanes through and near several towns. The highway's hidden state road designation is entirely State Road 95.
Barrineau Park is an unincorporated community in Escambia County, Florida, United States. It is approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Molino and a few miles from the Perdido River. It is a rural community of low hills, farms, creeks and woods.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States and the third largest local police agency in the United States, following the New York Police Department, and the Chicago Police Department. LASD has approximately 18,000 employees, 9,915 sworn deputies and 9,244 unsworn members. It is sometimes confused with the unrelated Los Angeles Police Department which provides law enforcement service within the city of Los Angeles, which is the county seat of Los Angeles County.
The Pensacola Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency for Pensacola, Florida in the United States.
Claude Neal was a 23-year-old African-American farmhand who was arrested in Jackson County, Florida, on October 19, 1934, for allegedly raping and killing Lola Cannady, a 19-year-old white woman missing since the preceding night. Circumstantial evidence was collected against him, but nothing directly linked him to the crime. When the news got out about his arrest, white lynch mobs began to form. In order to keep Neal safe, County Sheriff Flake Chambliss moved him between multiple jails, including the county jail at Brewton, Alabama, 100 miles (160 km) away. But a lynch mob of about 100 white men from Jackson County heard where he was, and brought him back to Jackson County.
The 2018 Florida Attorney General election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the Attorney General of Florida. Incumbent Republican attorney general Pam Bondi was term-limited and could not seek a third consecutive term.
Robert Alexander Andrade is a Republican member of the Florida Legislature representing the state's 2nd House district, which includes parts of Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
On the morning of December 6, 2019, a terrorist attack occurred at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida. The assailant killed three men and injured eight others. The shooter was killed by Escambia County sheriff deputies after they arrived at the scene. He was identified as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, an Air Force aviation student from Saudi Arabia.
The 2022 Pensacola mayoral election took place on August 23, 2022, to elect the mayor of Pensacola. Local Entrepreneur and businessman D. C. Reeves was elected during the primary by earning the majority, 7,682 votes (51.11%), against three opponents, Jewell Cannada-Wynn, Sherri Myers and Steven Sharp. Because Reeves earned the majority in the primary, there was no runoff on November 8 and Reeves took office on November 22, when Incumbent Mayor Grover C. Robinson IV stepped down after one term. At age 38, Reeves will became the youngest Pensacolian to hold the office in 101 years.
Michael C. Wiggins is an American businessman and politician who served as the 61st mayor of Pensacola from 2009 to 2011.
The lynching of Leander Shaw occurred near midnight on July 29, 1908, in Pensacola, Florida. Shaw was accused of the attempted murder and rape of 21-year-old Lillie Davis. Shaw, being positively identified by Davis, was arrested and taken to jail. On the night of July 29, an angry mob shot the Escambia County Sheriff and hung Leander Shaw in Plaza Ferdinand VII.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
