Sheriff: Law enforcement is expensive but worth the price

When it comes to the crime rate in unincorporated Sarasota County, the good news is it is on the decline. The not-so-good revelation, though, is the cost to keep that trend in its downward trajectory is rapidly rising.

Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman delivered that message to members of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 23 during its quarterly State of the Community luncheon. 

Hoffman appeared with Sarasota Police Department Chief Rex Troche to discuss trends in law enforcement capabilities. 

While Troche’s presentation was focused on SPD’s technology advancements, Hoffman centered his comments on the growth of the Sheriff’s Office necessary to match that of the county’s population.

At 1,068 employees both sworn and civilian, the SCSO is the 11th largest sheriff’s office among Florida’s 67 counties. Ironically, Hoffman pointed out, the population of Sarasota County Jail, which his office is charged to administer, on that specific date was 1,064.

“Which one of those two gives you the most problems?,” Hoffman asked rhetorically. “Let me give you a hint. Crime is easy. People are hard. One of those groups, you can turn the lights out at nine o’clock.”

With jurisdiction stretching from “the airport to North Port,” the SCSO patrol vehicles travel just more than 7 million miles per year. That doesn’t include two helicopters that are deployed regularly according to Hoffman, all-terrain vehicles to access more remote parts of the county and four boats that patrol the coastline and other navigable waters.

Besides all that hardware is manpower, and for fiscal year 2026, a budget of $221.17 million, up from $198.52 of the recently ended fiscal 2025. 

In addition to patrolling the streets and skies, the SCSO also operates the Sarasota County Jail and the countywide 911 call center, which last year fielded some 780,000 calls for emergency service. 

The bulk of the SCSO budget is directed toward personnel costs, including benefits and pensions, which consistently rise year over year. 

The same goes for equipment, as Hoffman, who was first elected in 2021, drew comparisons between 2016 and 2025. 

“Take, for instance, vehicles. We’re an all-General Motors fleet and Chevrolet Tahoes went from $31,000 to $58,000,” Hoffman said, that price not including upgrades for law enforcement operation. “Guns, radios, uniforms, bulletproof vests, sirens, tires, batteries, cars, boats — everything has gone up. So that is the challenge right there. Seventy-two percent this last year of our budget is directed toward personnel. Those 1,068 men and women who keep you safe is a very large portion of what we do. It is extremely expensive to police this community.”

The payoff, however, is a substantial decrease in crime across the county since 2009, when there were 9,131 reported cases of violent crime. Despite the population growth since then, violent crime decreased to 3,437 cases in 2024 a drop of 62.8%.

With a population of just more than 294,000 in unincorporated Sarasota County, local law enforcement agencies including SCSO are also charged with the safety of the 2.5 million tourists who visit annually. In March of this year alone, Hoffman said, some 600,000 disembarked at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. 

The SCSO is also responsible for patrolling the bulk of Legacy Trail and its annual 190,000 walkers, joggers and riders. 

“What does that mean? You've got the speeding bikes, you've got drugs, you've got people who are drinking, you've got people who are fighting. Everything you can imagine that occurs outside occurs on that trail as well,” Hoffman said. “We recently took a very dangerous individual, who was propositioning women down in Nokomis, off of that trail, who had a very bad criminal history.”

Hoffman credited the 2009 implementation of intelligence-led policing, which he said has been rebranded “Intelligence to Action,” for the decline in violent and serious crimes countywide.

“If you would have told me violent crime would drop by over 62% in that time period, I'd have lost my house,” Hoffman said, had he been a gambler. “It proves the adage that the majority of crimes are committed by a small percentage of folks, and when you pluck them out of your community and put them somewhere where they can't harm the rest of us, you see this number start to go down.”

It’s all accomplished, Hoffman said, with one of the lowest deputies-per-capita ratios in the state. Sarasota County has 1.20 deputies per 1,000 unincorporated population. This compares to similar-size counties Manatee at 1.32, Escambia at 1.74, Seminole at 1.76, Volusia at 1.86 and Brevard at 2.30.

Compared to regional counties, that protection also comes at a lower cost, which is $633 per 1,000 taxpayers countywide. According to SCSO data, that cost is $644 in Manatee and Charlotte counties, $667 in Lee County, and $715 in Collier County. 

"I've lived here for 42 years. I went to high school here, raised my family here. There's no better place, I think we can all agree, that Sarasota County, and Rex and I want you to know we take it very seriously protecting this community.