Never has a truer statement been made than this: There’s a new Sheriff in town.
In what feels like a blink of an eye to those who work in the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office—and even not-so-new Sheriff Christopher Blackmon—the man who took charge when former Sheriff Marcos Lopez was arrested on racketeering charges stemming from his role in an illegal casino operation has overseen the department for 100 days now
Blackmon says his focus has not been on Lopez—“I told our staff to remove every rearview mirror,” he joked— but with reshaping OCSO and assuring the public that the office is not fractured.
“When I got the call from Tallahassee (to take over), we discussed responsibilities and what was going on and what needed to be done: rebuilding the agency and our relationship with the entire community, because the former sheriff obviously betrayed the trust of the voters,” Blackmon said in a News-Gazette interview Monday.
It’s not easy work. If there’s been a public or group meeting or event around town, you’ve likely seen Blackmon, who traded the beige of the Florida Highway Patrol uniform, where he spent 30 years and was most recently a regional chief over 13 counties and some 1,000 personnel, for an olive green Sheriff ’s uniform.
“I'm leaving here and getting home at 8, 9 o’clock at night,” he said.
Blackmon admitted to not knowing much about Osceola County and its Sheriff’s Office that first week of June—in a span of 48 hours he went from getting a first call from Gov. DeSantis’ office to addressing the media outside the headquarters, when he learned of “the mess left behind.”
“It's been vast, and the agency's been neglected internally. I don't think it's been run correctly,” Blackmon said. “We've come in and realigned the agency.”
Part of that is bringing familiar faces into the administration. Blackmon named former Kissimmee Police chief and FDLE officer Lee Massie undersheriff, and Kim Montes, another longtime FHP member, is the Public Information Officer, while many other top-level employees have been retained.
“Lee would be my MVP,” Blackmon said. “He knows this profession inside and out. And Kim’s already got a footprint with the news media and has that rapport, and she oversees a team that are rock stars in their field. And we brought back (Patrol Operations Major) Alex Guevara, who was fired by Lopez, and brought in (Special Operations Major) Kevin Brown from FHP. You find an agency, and Kevin's got a contact there. This structure I think is more functional. Now we have focus.”
With the people in place, he then took on OCSO’s finances, calling for three separate state-level audits, such as a forensic financial examination.
“For lack of a better term, it’s kind of like an audit on steroids. I want them to focus a lot on former sheriff and his executive staff he had in place,” Blackmon said. “See any purchases they made and if any money could have been misappropriated and misused. And they're looking at that now for us. On top of that, we brought FDLE in and they've done an audit on our evidence property.
“We’ve got to make sure that everything we're doing internally is correct, to make sure we have the parameters set up for us to protect our data. Because if a criminal gets into our system and comes in, they can also access anybody's arrest report with all your data security. And FDLE has already completed an audit on that.”
With everything that’s gone on, Blackmon said he’s hyper-focused on being responsible with taxpayer money.
“It's not my money, it's the county's money,” he said. “We're going to operate in integrity and trust and accountability. I don't like the term ‘transparent.’ I think if we can work under honesty and integrity, which didn't exist here before, I think we'll be in a good spot.
“When I came in, all I had was integrity. And when I leave here, it's going with me.”
And after being here for over three months, he sees his role as a potential long-term job. Legal action against Lopez would change his status from “suspended” Sheriff to “removed,” making a special election for the permanent seat necessary—and he says he would run in it.
“The governor asked me from day one, ‘Do you plan to run?’ I said, ‘Yes, with an asterisk,” Blackmon said. “I mean this with all sincerity: we have a lot of good men and women, both sworn and non-sworn, working in this building, and their mission is to serve this community. It’s the kind of place you like to show up everyday. “I believe that God anointed me and put me here for a reason. And my mission is to make this the best sheriff's office in the state. And it's to take care of the community, take care of all the taxpayers and their money and represent them well, and to protect this community and preserve the quality of life they're there used to and eradicate crime, and we're going to do it at all costs.’
