History
The current Sheriff is Chris Nocco, who was appointed by former Governor Rick Scott on April 25, 2011, after the previous sheriff announced his early retirement. Nocco was elected to the position in 2012 and ran unopposed in 2016, 2020, and 2024. [2] [3]
In February 2015, the Pasco Sheriff's Office (PSO) became the first sheriff's office in the central Florida region to adopt a full-scale body camera program. The PSO issued a body-worn camera manufactured by TASER Inc to every deputy sheriff on patrol in the county. [4]
In 2016, the Pasco Sheriff's Office developed a new hashtag called the "#9PMROUTINE" to remind residents to lock their doors. The campaign was credited with dropping thefts from vehicles by about 35% in just a few months. The agency subsequently copyrighted the hashtag to ensure it "doesn't get used for bad" after over 100 other departments adopted it. [5]
Supreme Court case: Florida v. Riley
In 1989, the Sheriff's Office was the subject of a landmark Supreme Court of the United States decision, Florida v. Riley . The case originated when a Pasco County deputy, acting on a tip, used a helicopter to fly 400 feet above a resident's property to peer inside a partially covered greenhouse. [6]
The deputy observed marijuana plants through a missing roof panel and obtained a search warrant based on this aerial observation. The defendant argued that the surveillance violated his reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled 5–4 in favor of the Sheriff's Office, establishing the precedent that police officials do not need a warrant to observe private property from public airspace. [7]
Controversies and criticism
The Pasco Sheriff's Office has been the subject of investigative reporting and legal proceedings concerning its policing methods, administrative practices, and treatment of employees. Notable controversies include the implementation of an "Intelligence-Led Policing" program that resulted in a federal settlement regarding constitutional violations, a Department of Justice investigation into the treatment of students with disabilities, and litigation involving allegations of whistleblower retaliation and public records transparency.
Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) and constitutional violations
Between 2011 and 2023, Sheriff Nocco implemented a controversial "Intelligence-Led Policing" (ILP) program, which became the subject of the investigative series "Targeted" by the Tampa Bay Times . The investigation, which won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, revealed that the program utilized a proprietary algorithm to generate lists of "prolific offenders" and "at-risk" youth based on sensitive data, including school grades, truancy records, and histories of being a victim of child abuse. [8] [9]
Under the program, deputies were ordered to engage in "relentless pursuit" of targeted individuals. This strategy involved repeatedly visiting targets' homes without warrants, issuing citations for minor code violations (such as missing mailbox numbers or overgrown grass), and interrogating family members. Former deputies described the directive as an effort to "make their lives miserable until they move or sue." [10]
In December 2024, the Sheriff's Office reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit brought by the Institute for Justice. As a condition of the settlement, Sheriff Nocco formally admitted that the program violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The agency agreed to permanently dismantle the program and pay a financial settlement to the victims. [11] [12]
In May 2025, a Florida appeals court further ruled that Nocco had unlawfully withheld public records regarding the "at-risk youth" list. The court ordered the office to pay legal fees to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which had sued to expose the program's targeting of minority groups. [13]
Civil rights violations against students with disabilities
In March 2024, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a settlement with the Pasco County Schools district following an investigation into its disciplinary practices and referrals to law enforcement. The investigation found that the district, which contracts its School Resource Officers (SROs) from the Sheriff's Office, routinely referred students with disabilities to law enforcement for behavior that could have been handled with proper support. [14]
The investigation revealed that SROs frequently arrested or initiated involuntary mental health examinations (Baker Act) for students with disabilities without considering their specific needs. This practice was found to violate Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. [15]
State auditors also identified deficiencies in the training of these deputies. A 2023 operational audit by the Florida Auditor General revealed that the Sheriff's Office contracts did not explicitly ensure that SROs had completed required mental health crisis intervention training, despite their frequent involvement in Baker Act detentions of students. [16]
Whistleblower retaliation and internal culture
Sheriff Nocco has been the subject of multiple lawsuits from former employees alleging a culture of intimidation and retaliation. In a 2019 lawsuit, former deputies described the agency's leadership as "intoxicated with power," alleging that command staff utilized "Mafia-style" tactics to silence whistleblowers who attempted to report corruption or misconduct. [17] The suit claimed that deputies were forced to resign or were terminated for refusing to participate in unlawful activities or for questioning directives from the Sheriff's administration.
The Sheriff's Office has faced criticism for using public funds to litigate against the release of evidence regarding inmate abuse. In 2022, reports revealed that the agency spent over $32,000 in taxpayer funds on legal fees to block the release of jail surveillance video showing deputies slamming an inmate, William Tide, to the ground, which resulted in the inmate suffering a fractured rib. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) eventually obtained and released the footage through a lawsuit, contradicting the Sheriff's Office's claims that the release would threaten facility security. [18]
Jail management and budget controversy
In October 2022, management of the Land O' Lakes Detention Center was transferred from the Sheriff's Office to the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners. Sheriff Nocco stated the transfer was necessary because the rising costs of medical and food contracts for the jail were "harming" his office's budget and hindering his ability to hire deputies. [19]
Despite shedding the operational costs of the jail, the Sheriff's Office budget increased significantly in the subsequent fiscal years. The office's adopted budget for FY2023 (the first full year without jail responsibility) was approximately $140 million; by FY2025, the budget had risen to over $174.5 million. Critics and county officials noted that despite these funding increases, Pasco County continued to rank poorly in statewide staffing metrics, placing 64th out of Florida's 67 counties in deputies per 1,000 residents. [20]
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