Pinellas County Sheriff's Office
| Pinellas County Sheriff's Office | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | PCSO |
Patch of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office
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| Agency overview | |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | County (United States) of Pinellas in the state of Florida, USA |
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| Map of Pinellas County Sheriff's Office's jurisdiction. | |
| Size | 608 square miles (1,570 km2) |
| Population | 928,031 |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Largo, Florida |
| Agency executive | Bob Gualtieri, Sheriff |
| Website | |
| Pinellas County Sheriff's Office | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) is the primary law enforcement agency for Pinellas County, Florida, United States and is responsible for law enforcement services in the unincorporated areas of the county as well as contract cities, jail facilities and courthouse security for Florida's 6th Judicial Circuit.
Voters approved the creation of Pinellas County Sheriff's Department in 1912. The early Pinellas County Sheriff's Office reflected the rough and rural nature of the peninsula at that time. Bootlegging, moon shining, and gambling were daily occurrences and the Sheriff's Office was kept busy running after a host of colorful criminals. Jail escapes were not uncommon. Newspapers reported how inmates sawed their way through the iron bars with tools smuggled in from the outside.
From the early days until the late 1950s, deputy sheriffs drove their own cars, wore plain clothes and carried their own weapons. The county was divided into several districts, each of which had a Justice of the Peace, to supervise legal matters. There was no centralized jail system. The Sheriff's Office enforced the laws alongside the County Patrol and various municipal police departments. When judges ran short of citizens in a jury pool, deputy sheriffs were sent out to round up citizens to serve. It wasn't until 1959, during the tenure of Sheriff Don Genung, that the sheriff's office took on a modern identity.
The Sheriff's Office absorbed the County Patrol in 1960. A year later, the Sheriff's Office bought a fleet of 1961 Plymouth Fury automobiles to serve as patrol cars. Sheriff's deputies were issued standardized uniforms. In fact, the shoulder patch worn by deputies now remains unchanged from that time. A standardized training program was developed and Sheriff's Office personnel were given the benefits of civil service, as well as health and retirement plans.
Improvements in technology and law enforcement strategy continued to evolve during the following decades. Presently, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office consists of over 3,000 members in five major service bureaus:
— Uniform Patrol
— Community Policing
— K9 Unit
— Flight Unit
— Marine & Environmental Lands Units
— SWAT
— DUI Unit
— School Resource Officer Unit
— Property Crimes Division
— Crimes Against Persons Division
— Narcotics Division
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Wikipedia