He has more than 40 years of fighting crime in Central Florida, but Lawson Lamar will soon step aside as Orange and Osceola County’s leading law enforcement officer.

Lamar served as state attorney in Orange and Osceola County for 24 years.

Before that, he was the Orange County Sheriff for two terms, stepping in a time when Central Florida was greatly underprepared for the population boom it was about to experience.

“I was lucky to get here at the time Disney and Sea World was getting going really,” described Lamar. “And they brought a lot of visitors, they’ve done a great job, their security people are great and helpful, they are clean, but the growth brought crime problems.”

With crowds came criminals, too. The Central Florida legal system needed to be rebuilt from the ground up.

“We didn’t have the jail space to protect citizens locally. Burglars were getting out a couple of days after doing burglaries,” he added.

After a lengthy battle with county commissioners, Lamar marked one of his first major victories.

“So we built the large jail complex out at 33rd Street, which has been added on some since I’ve been sheriff. And the fact that we had jails to put burglars, robbers and rapists in happens to be one of the main reasons we were able to lead the state of Florida for all the nine major jurisdictions in crime reduction for the next seven years,” Lamar told News 13.

Over four decades, Lamar launched many initiatives, programs and organizations.

One on the most successful has been the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation.

According to Lamar, it is the most successful strike force in the nation.

Lamar admits that Central Florida is the focus of some of the nation’s strangest and most high profile cases, and as state attorney he has seen plenty.

“It’s remarkable. Two jurisdictions seem to draw unusual cases beyond their size, in terms of their population and so on,” said Lamar.

Along with Las Vegas, Central Florida draws a large transient population, something Lamar believes adds to the dramatic cases his office prosecutes.

“Fugitives seem to come to Vegas or to Orlando more often than you would believe,” said Lamar.

  • Check back and watch News 13 Friday as our conversation with Lawson Lamar continues and he shares his thoughts on some of the high-profile cases he will never forget, including the Case Against Casey Anthony.