ORLANDO, Fla. — The death of George Floyd reignited years-long calls for reforms within the ranks of law enforcement across the U.S.
What You Need To Know
- 5 candidates are vying for the Orange Co. sheriff seat
- Candidates discuss how they would address police reform
- RELATED: 2020 Voting Guide
Floyd’s death sparked renewed calls and protests in cities nationwide, including Central Florida, where for several weeks large gatherings of demonstrators took over streets and in front of Orlando Police Department.
“This time around, we’re more engaged,” said Miles Mulrain Jr, a local community activist. “We’re talking about why we need to change stuff here in Orlando.”
Mulrain helped organized “Let Your Voice Be Heard” in 2016, a local nonprofit focused on improving conditions in inner-city areas and relations between law enforcement and the community.
“I would have to say to anybody not walking in the shoes of a black person, come see what we go through, come see the over policing, come see the times that our youth are sometimes harassed or stopped just for walking,” Mulrain said.
“Defund Police” protests have been based on efforts to address complaints of excessive force by encouraging law enforcement agencies to adopt the so-called “8 Can’t Wait” policies.
Those policies include:
- Banning chokeholds and strangleholds
- Requiring de-escalation
- Requiring warnings before shooting
- Requiring alternatives before shooting
- Mandating a duty to interview among officers
- Banning shooting at moving vehicles
- Requiring use of Force continuum
- Requiring comprehensive reporting
“At the end of the day we can bring each other in and learn about each other by letting each other lead,” Mulrain said. “So, we want to see more black leadership from people on the ground, being brought into these places to make changes because they are needed.”
Many Central Florida law enforcement agencies say they already meet, or are working to meet, those prescribed standards.
What is "reform" to the candidates?
Five candidates are vying to become Orange County’s next sheriff. Those candidates are (in alphabetically order by last name):
- Former Public Defender Andrew Darling
- Retired Florida Highway Patrol Chief Joe Lopez
- Former Eatonville Police Chief Eric McIntyre
- Sheriff John Mina (incumbent)
- Businessman Darryl Sheppard
NOTE: All five sheriff candidates are running as Democrats in the August 18 primary. Because there are no Republican primary challengers, and despite two write-in candidates, Democrats have the odds of effectively selecting the next Orange County Sheriff on August 18.
We asked each candidate about how they view the demands for “police reform” and how they will engage those policies if elected.
All agree that reform involves a balance of holding those within the agency accountable, while also expanding efforts to build relations and trust with the community.
Below are their responses, listed by candidate in alphabetically order by last name.
“The biggest issue we have is transparency,” said Andrew Darling. “If you don’t have transparency, you don’t have community trust and if you don’t have equal justice in the county, you’re not going to have trust in the police force.”
A public defender in Orange County until last fall, Darling now runs his own private practice while running for Orange County Sheriff.
In recent weeks that work included acting as a legal observer during mass demonstrations in downtown Orlando.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in that space having conversations,” Darling said. “My wife is black, my children are biracial, so in the eyes of law enforcement and in society, my children are black, so for me my experience of where I grew up, how I grew up, and the impact on my family.”
He continued, “I have literally the same concerns as a black mother, I have black children, so for me I’ve been intentionally going to the protests and using my skills as an attorney to be a legal observer to ensure that yes, protestors are doing the right thing, but also to make sure law enforcement is doing the right thing. This is not an easy fix.”
An Orlando-area native and graduate of Oak Ridge High School, Darling says current demands for change don’t go far enough.
“One way I know I can change policies of the sheriff’s office is forcing officers to get written consent before they search a vehicle, when they don’t already have probable cause,” Darling said.
The Army veteran is also in the minority when it comes to the candidates’ view on use and authority of citizen oversight boards.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled in a 2009 case involving then Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, that agency citizen review boards did not have legal authority to investigate or subpoena law enforcement officers.
Darling says he believes he can work around that ruling to give citizen boards wider bounds to oversee the sheriff’s office.
“My position is going to fundamentally change, and I’m going to say as sheriff, ‘No, I want my civilian review board to have subpoena power, to have teeth, to be able to make recommendations,’ and honestly I would like the civilian review board to have the ability to terminate,” Darling said.
Criticizing current and past law enforcement leadership, Darling says Central Florida agencies have been plagued with excessive force complaints
Darling says improving policies is one aspect, but he also aims to improve recruitment of minority deputies and staff members and expand the agency to include licensed mental health professionals who can assist in answering calls to relieve the pressures on deputies.
Joe Lopez also agrees that the demands on deputies, and law enforcement as a whole, are great.
“We’re a priest, we’re a doctor, we’re a social worker, we’re everything,” Lopez said.
Lopez says he believe broadly law enforcement officers are not always fully trained on the mental health and social side of issues. The idea Lopez presents is to have third-party organizers that include licensed mental health counselors, to respond to calls to take the lead on issues that may focus on domestic violence or baker acts.
The Marine veteran worked for more than 30 years in law enforcement, most recently as a Chief with Florida Highway Patrol, overseeing operations of the turnpike troop. Lopez now works in security management for a major tourism company.
Lopez launched his campaign for Orange County Sheriff more than two years ago, running for the job in 2018.
“What we’re not doing is, we’re not actively listening to the community,” Lopez said. “We’re just going through the numbers and telling the community what we’re going to do.”
Lopez said reforming the Orange County Sheriff’s Office would focus on regular community town halls and wider recruitment efforts concentrated in minority neighborhoods.
“One of the things we have to do is make sure we’re hiring the best of the best, we have to go to minority colleges and university,” Lopez said.
Lopez said he would also expand technology and policies to better hold those within the agency accountable, adopting ideas from Florida Highway Patrol.
One system recording data on traffic stops to ensure there is no one class of people being stopped more than others. Lopez said he can improve relations with the community by making his policies firm and clear.
“Excess use of force in my book is a crime,” Lopez said. “We know you can only use a minimum amount of force to affect the arrest, that means just enough to get them to comply, anything above that is a crime.”
As for community oversight, Lopez said the Florida Supreme Court is clear, that a citizens review board is limited in its authority, but instead proposes a citizens appeal board.
“What that means is, if someone is the victim of police brutality or any engagement, you can file a complaint, and if you’re not satisfied with the appeal, you can appeal that and then it goes to the citizen appeal board. They review the case, they review the investigation and make sure that it was conducted fairly and properly,” Lopez said.
Lopez said the citizens review board would be set up to ensure it did not specifically favor law enforcement by ensuring members are citizens of the community as a whole and not required to have law enforcement experience.
Lopez also says he aims to expand not just community outreach, but opportunities for citizens to be involved at the sheriff’s office, to go through deputy style training, to help both sides understand the demands of each other.
Former Eatonville Police Chief Eric McIntyre says he believes what he can bring to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office is a renewed style of community policing to build relations.
Growing up in Orlando, McIntyre recalls the times police officers then would come through his neighborhood, playing basketball and sharing snacks with area kids.
“That’s the type of community policing I’m looking for, where an officer will patrol a neighborhood and get out of the car and meet the people,” McIntyre said.
McIntyre said he should shift some of the hiring practices of OCSO if elected, not only reaching out more to minority communities, but ensuring that standards include not just law enforcement training, but attributes that are community and service oriented.
“A lot of things I intend to implement, a lot of changes and many of those changes deal with being more interactive in the community and making officers more people-oriented, more people-friendly,” McIntyre said.
McIntyre says he doesn’t believe community events and barbecues are the key to building relations, but rather through interactions daily.
A former Legal Aid advocate turned law enforcement officer, McIntyre started his career in 1995, working through the ranks and divisions that include SWAT, investigations, and ultimately a short run as Chief of Eatonville Police.
McIntyre was fired as chief after a month in October 2015 due to what Eatonville leaders described at the time as “administrative challenges,” reportedly showing up late to a meeting — although weeks later McIntyre was reinstated.
McIntyre said he is not in favor of mental health counselors responding to calls with officers, citing potential danger that may exist.
Current Orange County Sheriff John Mina said he was forced to cut a recent budget request that could have potentially provided the hiring of mental health specialists. Mina said he believes they have a role to play, but also remained cautious about potential dangers that could exist for them responding to calls.
“The thought about ‘lets turn this over to social workers’ could be impracticable, but what I have been doing long before this conversation started, I sent commanders in January to California and Miami to look at programs they have involving mental health and what they have done in those jurisdictions,” Sheriff Mina said.
He added, “They’ve paired law enforcement with mental health specialists, so law enforcement and mental health specialists would respond to some of the more serious cases together so we can avoid any kind of use of force, we can avoid baker act situations and avoid taking someone’s life.”
Nationally there are efforts to fold in mental health professionals into law enforcement, believing it could greatly improve the outcome of certain situations.
An Army veteran, Mina has served the majority of his more than 30-year law enforcement career in the Orlando area. A military police officer at the time, Mina was recruited to work for Orlando Police Department where he spent 28 years, working in patrol, SWAT, and sex crimes before being appointed as Chief of Police in 2014.
Mina became the 29th sheriff of Orange County when elected in 2018 to finish serving the remaining two years of then-Sheriff Jerry Demings, who was elected in 2018 as Orange County’s mayor.
“We’ve done a lot of great things, first and foremost this year we’re having significant crime reduction of 19%, which we are extremely proud of, and it’s a partnership between the deputies on the street and our community,” Mina said. “My priorities here as sheriff are to reduce crime and reduce fear of crime and to engage with the community.”
Mina says he has made strides in improving relations and continues to reform OCSO by changing policies and holding his staff accountable.
To the question of the 8 Can’t Wait campaign, Mina says most of those policies are already in place, with the exception of the policy banning shooting at moving vehicles.
“The good news is we do all of those things already, we just need a better strategy of letting our community members know about that. We’re definitely open to listening, to change, but since I’ve been sheriff and chief, I have been putting reforms in place,” Sheriff Mina said.
Mina says he publishes agency policies online and data on deputy involved shootings.
However, Mina has also faced criticism.
Community advocates say they are not “impressed” with the sheriff’s Citizen Advisory Committee and want to see more community oversight opportunities.
“I’m working with citizen advisory committee to ensure we have the best use-of-force policy as possible, to ensure we are getting input from the community,” Mina said. “Those meetings, albeit virtual, are open to the public, and we are taking ideas, and suggestions, and comments, on what reform should look like, and I’ll say I’ve talked to community leaders, I’ve talked to faith based leaders, I’ve talked to groups and advocates and have been explaining to them the things we have been doing and have in place.”
He also this week lost the endorsement of deputies when their union, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 93, rescinded its endorsement, which they first gave Mina last year.
Prior to the vote, the sheriff extended a series of incentives to deputies including full use of patrol vehicles and six administrative days for leave.
Mina admits there are strides still to be made, but defends the policy reforms and reduce crime rate.
Recruitment also remains a marquee point among the candidates, with Sheriff Mina adding OCSO has extensively outreach to minority communities, historically black colleges, and even the military.
“We certainly need to reflect our community,” Mina said. “…We go to military bases, as far west as Texas, because the military is extremely diverse, and it’s not only about recruiting diversity, but promoting diversity from within.”
Mina and Darling specifically spoke in interviews with Spectrum News about improving relations with the community by focusing attention on violent crimes instead of misdemeanors.
Businessman Darryl Sheppard argues the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has been too aggressive in focusing on misdemeanor crimes over violent crimes.
Sheppard also ran for the job in 2018, receiving the second highest number of votes; 40.6% behind Mina’s 45.6%. Lopez received 13.8% of the votes in the 2018 open election.
Sheppard’s contract to the race is that he does not have a career in law enforcement.
The Florida native says he graduated from police academy after attending from Florida State University and Florida A&M University, but elected to pursue a business career instead.
“I’m the only one who has a business background for 15 years, plus in this community I’m the only one who had to suffer at the hands of the broken system,” Sheppard said. “I’ve had to fight for my own rights in a criminal justice system that’s unfair to African Americans, none of the other candidates can say that.”
Sheppard’s history includes at least 13 arrests for minor crimes, though he has never been convicted.
“I think that’s very important to understand what a person goes through in order to help them,” Sheppard said. “I understand how it feels to be unjustly arrested or arrested just because of a person’s opinion at the time.”
Sheppard said his vision of reforming the Orange County Sheriff’s Office starts with ensuring deputies are affording people their full due process.
“What I want to do as a sheriff is have an educational program to help people understand their rights and what they could do to avoid violent interactions with police,” Sheppard said. “Get them their process or get them to the point where they can have due process rights respected and have much better chance at having positive results.”
Sheppard said he is in favor of a civilian oversight board with subpoena power and the creation of a civilian review board.
“I believe in involving the community in the sheriff’s office,” Sheppard said. “We’re serving the community, so having a sheriff’s office that makes the community feel excluded is defunct.”
As for the 8 Can’t Wait, Sheppard said he supports those policies, and doubling down on denouncing abuse by deputies.
“I would first start with making sure citizens understand we have a zero tolerance for excessive force,” Sheppard said. “There’s not a one strike, two strike, three strike you’re out situation. It’s zero tolerance.”
Sheppard said he believes daily interactions build better avenues for trust.
“People don’t’ care about the barbecues and beans and that kind of thing,” Sheppard said. “I think they want to be treated with respect. You’ll get them involved when you respect them. If you show them that you understand their struggles, they want to feel like we’re on the same level field. You’re being human and I’m being human.”
The responses above are merely a snapshot of each candidate’s viewpoints and ideas as illustrated in interviews with Spectrum News 13. In the weeks to come, leading up to the August 18 primary, we will be showcasing the candidates and key issues through a series of stories and profiles.
NOTE: Tim Adams and Winston Johnson are running as write-in candidates for Orange County Sheriff.