ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange County Sheriff John Mina, who says he grew tired of waiting for the Florida Highway Patrol to respond to crashes, has taken things into his own hands.

What You Need To Know

  • Orange County Sheriff John Mina is now using deputies and field service officers to respond to crashes in unincorporated areas of the county

  • The action reverses decades of the Florida Highway Patrol responding to all crashes in unincorporated Orange County

  • Mina says citizens were tired of waiting for FHP to respond to crash scenes

  • According to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, close to 4,000 traffic crash reports have been made since switch was made in September

Reversing decades of practice, Mina is now sending his own deputies and field service officers to reduce the amount of time it takes for law enforcement to respond to a crash scene.

“I would receive a lot of inquiries and complaints from residents who were just waiting too long to have a traffic crash report done,” Mina said. “Some as long as six, seven, eight hours.”

In unincorporated Orange County, when someone would call to report a crash, they would get directed to Florida Highway Patrol.

Admilar Neston’s vehicle was hit back in 2020 in Pine Hills, and he says he waited three hours for FHP to respond before giving up.

“When I called the police, FHP, I wait, wait, wait,” he said. “They never came.”

But now, that has changed.

Mina began training his deputies and field service officers to investigate minor traffic crashes, and since September — when the switch was made — his team has written almost 4,000 traffic crash reports.

“It takes our deputies or our field service officers about 30 minutes to complete each traffic crash investigation,” Mina said. “So, we think we can do it.”

Mina said no additional funding was required to respond to the crashes, but it has meant changes.

“It does increase our cost for service,” he said. “It does increase the amount of time the deputies have to spend on this investigation. So, you know, we’re fine with staffing.”

Mina said he hasn’t seen a decrease in response times to other scenes since OCSO took over responding to vehicle crashes.

So for now, they’ll handle those minor incidents and rely on FHP to handle the more serious wrecks on the roads.

“I like that,” said Neston. “Because sometimes when I used to see them, Orange County (Sheriff’s Office) used to pass by when I called FHP. I used to be mad. I used to say, ‘Wow, look at them. They pass, they just drop back. And they’re not doing nothing. Why they not come assist me?’ But now, they’ll be able to do that. That’s really good.”

Spectrum News reached out to FHP for comment on the Orange County Sheriff’s Office initiative, but never heard back.

They do have a new pilot program in Central Florida, where if you’re involved in a minor crash, a light duty trooper will contact you via cell phone and conduct the investigation through the mobile device.

The desktop trooper program began back in November and runs for two years.