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The Sanford Police Department is a police agency in Sanford, the county seat of Seminole County, Florida. It employs 140 sworn police officers alongside 24 other employees, and Police Chief Smith. Prior to Chief Smith, Richard Myers was the Interim Police Chief. Myers is the former Chief of Police in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Appleton, Wisconsin. [1] In March 2012, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee took a temporary leave of absence during the department's investigation of the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin, and Captain Darren Scott was named acting chief of police. [2] [3] [4] Myers took over from Scott in May, 2012. [1] [5] In April 2013, Former Elgin, Illinois Deputy Police Chief Cecil Smith took over as the department's chief. [6]
The department's officers are represented by Lodge 140 of the Fraternal Order of Police. [7]
The Sanford Police Department has some specialized units. The units include: Traffic, K-9, Investigations, D.A.R.E., School Resource Officers, Crime Prevention and Community Policing Officers.
In November, 2010, the Sanford Police Department moved to a new $20 million, 76,000-square-foot Public Safety Complex, which it shares with the Sanford Fire Department and a five-bay fire station. Built to withstand 150 mph hurricane winds, the two-story complex also houses Sanford's emergency operations center. [8] [9] [10] The police and fire departments have separate and much larger facilities with a shared atrium, and there is a public meeting room. [8] The police department also has a room specifically to conduct voice stress analysis, a type of lie detector test, and the fire department's communication system is integrated with a new dispatching system in Seminole County. [9] The building uses an integrated video surveillance and access control system from Genetec. [11]
Sanford's Public Safety Complex is located between the city's Goldsboro Community and the State Farmers Market. [8] At the time of its planning, the complex was considered part of Sanford's efforts to revitalize the Goldsboro area. [12]
In 2003, the Sanford Police Department was awarded a $375,000 federal grant from the Community Oriented Policing Services to help pay for five officers' salaries. [13]
On 26 February 2012, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old boy who had been visiting his father in a gated community in Sanford, was walking back from a nearby store. A civilian neighborhood watch captain, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, called Sanford Police from his truck to report Martin's behavior as suspicious. During the call Zimmerman left his vehicle to follow Martin and later there was a fight. Martin was shot by Zimmerman during this fight, ending it. The incident led to protests against the Sanford Police Department and national and international attention in the media, [14] [15] with race an issue in the case as Martin was Black and Zimmerman is a mixed-race Hispanic. [16] On 22 March 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor, Angela Corey, to take over the investigation. [17]
On the same day, Bill Lee, chief of the Sanford Police at the time of the shooting, announced that he had temporarily stepped down from his position, stating "my involvement in this matter is overshadowing the process." [4] Lee had received criticism for his handling of the investigation, and on March 21, the City Commission, including the mayor, passed a motion of no confidence in the police chief. [18] On 23 April 2012, Lee offered a letter of resignation but it wasn't accepted by the Sanford City Commission. In May, 2012, former Colorado Springs, Colorado, Police Chief Richard Myers was appointed to lead the Sanford Police Department by City Manager Norton Bonaparte. [1] In June 2012, Bill Lee was dismissed by Bonaparte, on the grounds that he had lost the confidence of the community. [19]
Cecil Smith became chief of the department starting in April 2013. Smith had served as deputy chief of the Elgin, Illinois police. [20]
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Press reports have indicated a number of cases of misconduct by officers of the Sanford Police Department.
In 2010, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report noted that Sanford police Officer Christopher McClendon had misused his official position by helping a car dealer recover cars from delinquent customers in exchange for having his own car payments forgiven. [21]
In February 2010, press reports indicated one officer was fired, and another, Ned Golden, Jr., was suspended for two weeks [22] after sending sexist and racist text messages on a department computer. [23]
In January, 2011, the same Officer Golden was assigned to retraining after approaching a car of people at a gas station with a drawn gun. Officer Golden grabbed the car when it pulled away. He then claimed the driver of the car tried to kill him by driving away while he held on to the car. [24] No charges were filed in the case. In August 2011, after an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Golden was fired. The state report recommended he be charged with filing a false police report, official misconduct and assault with a deadly weapon. [25] No charges were filed by the State Attorney's Office. [26]
Officer Golden is the son of the head of the local police union. [23]
In that same month, the chief of the department, Brian Tooley, took an early retirement as a result of an incident involving one of his officer's sons. Justin Collison was caught on video tape in an unprovoked assault on a homeless man outside of a bar. Press reports indicate Collison, the son of a police lieutenant, was not arrested or charged with a crime by the Sanford Police Department until the video became public 7 weeks later. [27] [28] [29]
In April 2011, Officer DeAnthony Shamar was fired when it was discovered he had used a boy scout as a proxy buyer in a drug investigation. In his nine years as a Sanford police officer, Shamar had been investigated by the department 25 times. [30]
In December 2012, Officer Stephan Santiago was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after a chase that culminated with him driving his car the wrong way on the street, bumping off the curbs several times. Santiago passed a field sobriety test and the police department promised an internal investigation. The same officer had been involved in a barroom brawl in 2008. [31]
In late December 2013, Officer Joseph Jermaine Wiggins pleaded no contest to taking a bribe from a man in exchange for his not being cited for a traffic offense in October 2011. [32] He was sentenced to five years on probation and banned from working as a police officer. [33]
In July 2014, the department paid $75,000 to man who threatened a lawsuit. He had claimed two police officers used excessive force arresting him. The department did not admit any misconduct. [34]
Also in July 2014, Officer Mickey Hinkley was fired after an internal investigation determined he had threatened a prisoner with his taser. [35]
During the trial of George Zimmerman, the Sanford Police Department came under heavy criticism, and was accused of "stolen valor" when it was revealed on national television that their officers were wearing U.S. military awards, including such decorations as the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, with simply different names as police awards. After numerous complaints to both the Sanford police and the Fraternal Order of Police, the department discontinued this practice of wearing U.S. military awards in lieu of unique police decorations. [36]
A neighborhood watch or neighbourhood watch, also called a crime watch or neighbourhood crime watch, is an organized group of civilians devoted to crime and vandalism prevention within a neighborhood.
The Miami Police Department (MPD), also known as the City of Miami Police Department, is a full-service municipal law enforcement agency serving Miami, Florida. MPD is the largest municipal police department in Florida. MPD officers are distinguishable from their Miami-Dade Police Department counterparts by their blue uniforms and blue-and-white patrol vehicles.
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Angela Corey is a former Florida State's Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, which includes Duval, Nassau and Clay counties—including Jacksonville and the core of its metropolitan area. The first woman to hold the position, she was elected in 2008, and defeated on August 30, 2016 by Melissa Nelson, the second ever woman to hold this position. Corey was catapulted into the national spotlight when on March 22, 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced that she would be the newly assigned State Attorney investigating the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
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On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American high school student. Zimmerman, a 28-year-old man of mixed race, was the neighborhood watch coordinator for his gated community where Martin was visiting his relatives at the time of the shooting. Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during a physical altercation between the two. Zimmerman, injured during the encounter, claimed self-defense in the confrontation.
George Michael Zimmerman is an American who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012. On July 13, 2013, he was acquitted of all charges in Florida v. George Zimmerman. After his acquittal, Zimmerman was the target of a shooting. The perpetrator was convicted of attempted murder.
Trayvon Benjamin Martin was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had gone with his father on a visit to his father's fiancée at her townhouse at The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford. On the evening of February 26, Martin was walking back to the fiancée's house from a nearby convenience store. Zimmerman, a member of the community watch, saw Martin and reported him to the Sanford Police as suspicious. Several minutes later, there was an altercation and Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest.
Benjamin Lloyd Crump is an American attorney who specializes in civil rights and catastrophic personal injury cases such as wrongful death lawsuits. His practice has focused on cases such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and George Floyd, the people poisoned during the Flint water crisis, and the plaintiffs behind the 2019 Johnson & Johnson baby powder lawsuit alleging the company's talcum powder product led to ovarian cancer diagnoses. Crump is also founder of the firm Ben Crump Law of Tallahassee, Florida.
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State of Florida v. George Zimmerman was a criminal prosecution of George Zimmerman on the charge of second-degree murder stemming from the killing of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012.
Goldsboro is a community and former town in Seminole County, Florida. Founded in 1891, it is one of the oldest African-American founded communities in the United States and was established only a few years after nearby Eatonville. In 1911, the community was annexed into Sanford, Florida.
The Retreat at Twin Lakes is a gated community in the US city of Sanford, Florida. It was the site of the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. The community initially consisted of 1,400-square-foot townhouses which sold on average for $250,000, but had values below $100,000 by February 2012 due in large part to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. In 2013, properties ranged from "$115,990s–$126,990s."
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