To the Sheriffs and Police Chiefs of Florida:

In your Friday statement addressing the murder of George Floyd, the President of your association,
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said, “The Minneapolis police officer used deadly force in a
situation where there was no justification. The other officers present should have intervened to stop the
officer who had his knee on George Floyd’s neck. These officers’ actions are not representative of
sheriff’s deputies in Florida or the law enforcement profession.” It is easy to condemn the actions of
officers of the law in Minneapolis if you are not also asked to be held accountable for your own here at
home.

In the past year, Gualtieri himself bucked the national trend to limit the use of deadly tasers—a ​story
that was exposed following the death of an unarmed Clearwater man who was electroshocked by a
sheriff’s deputy. However, he is not alone in engaging in or condoning the use of excessive force he
openly criticized in the statement. In Broward County two white sheriff’s deputies were filmed slamming
15-year-old Delucca “Lucca” Rolle’s head into the ground during his arrest, leading to a national outcry
of its own. More than empty sympathies for George Floyd’s family are needed.

It is not just that the FSA’s recent statement is hypocritical, it is that the sentiment does nothing to keep
Floridians safe. In order to back up its words with action, the members of the Freedom for Florida
coalition demand that all Florida sheriffs, Sheriff's candidates and police chiefs commit to do the
following:

● Demilitarize the Sheriff’s office​; Police departments that get more military weapons from the
federal government kill more people. This can be stopped with the implementation of the
following measures by your police force:
○ Carry less-lethal weapons as a proven method to curb violent behavior by officers of the
law.
○ Restrict SWAT team use to emergency situations
○ Heavy No Knock Raids restrictions
● Revise, strengthen, and publicly release Use of Force Policy​; More restrictive state and local
policies governing police use of force are associated with significantly lower rates of police
shootings/killings by police. This is backed by 30+ years of research, by the Use of Force Project.
This is why we demand that the following use of force policies which have been employed in
police departments across the country and work to keep people safe are employed in your
police force:.
○ Explicitly limit the instances when police officers can use deadly force, changing the
standard from one based on “reasonable belief” that the officer or another person is in
imminent danger to one that requires police officers to use force only when necessary.
○ Require verbal warnings and provide time to comply .
 ○ Utilize the minimum amount of force to restrain a subject, with specific guidelines for
the types of force and tools authorized for a given level of resistance.
○ Utilize de-escalation tactics whenever possible instead of force.
○ Ban using force for talking back or as a punishment for walking away.
○ Ban chokeholds, strangleholds, and, hog-tying.
○ Require exhaustion of all other means before shooting.
● De-escalation & Racial Bias Training​; The current training regime for police officers fails to
effectively teach them how to interact with our communities in a way that protects and
preserves life. According to PERF’s 2015 survey, among more than 280 law enforcement
agencies, new recruits received an average of 58 hours of firearms training, and only eight hours
of de-escalation training. An intensive training regime is needed to help police officers learn the
behaviors and skills to interact appropriately with communities. We also know white
supremacists have infiltrated law enforcement agencies, puting communities at further risk.
Require officers to undergo training - including scenario-based training - on the following topics
on at least a quarterly basis and involve the community - including youth of color - in their
design and implementation:
○ Implicit bias
○ Procedural justice
○ Relationship-based policing
○ Community interaction
○ Crisis intervention, mediation, conflict resolution, and rumor control
○ Appropriate engagement with youth
○ Appropriate engagement with LGBTQ, transgender and gender nonconforming
individuals
○ Appropriate engagement with individuals who are English language learners
○ Appropriate engagement with individuals from different religious affiliations
○ Appropriate engagement with individuals who are differently abled
○ De-escalation and minimizing the use of force

Require current and prospective police officers to undergo mandatory implicit racial bias
testing, including testing for bias in shoot/don't shoot decision-making, and develop a clear
policy for considering an officer's level of racial bias in:

○ law enforcement certification

○ the hiring process
○ performance evaluations
○ decisions about whether an officer should be deployed to communities of color
● Ensure accountability through civilian oversight boards​; Civilian oversight boards are not a
catch-all solution to excessive police force, but they can help to hold police accountable and
reduce instances of the unnecessary use of force. Effective oversight boards also hold the
promise of enhancing public safety and renewing public trust in police, especially within black
 communities. But not all boards work equally well. A number of factors further or undercut the
effectiveness of civilian oversight boards. Effective boards must:
○ Have independence from law enforcement​ –​ which is necessary to ensure unbiased
reviews of cases.
○ The authority to either discipline officers or recommend discipline of officers that
department leaders will then enforce.
○ Have subpoena power
○ Have sufficient resources of funding and manpower to effectively oversee departmental
activities.
○ Resources and authority to maintain accurate data, and foster robust relationships with
city officials and community members.
○ Representation from over-policed neighborhoods and marginalized communities, and a
clear application and nominating process
○ Publicly noticed and scheduled meetings where community can attend, observe, and
testify
○ Although it is the most expensive type of oversight body, the investigator-focused
model is best equipped to enforce police accountability, because this type has the
expertise, authority, and independence necessary to conduct credible and thorough
investigations.

○ Create and share policies around reporting all uses of force and other methods of
community oversight.

● Mandatory Body Cameras & Recording the Police.​ While they are not a cure-all, body cameras
and cell phone video have illuminated cases of police violence and have shown to be important
tools for holding officers accountable. Nearly every case where a police officer was charged with
a crime for killing a civilian in 2015 relied on video evidence showing the officer's actions. We
must ​require the use of body cameras - in addition to dashboard cameras - and establish policies
governing their use to:
○ record all interactions with subjects who have not requested to be kept anonymous
○ notify subjects that they have the option to remain anonymous and stop
recording/storing footage if they choose this option
○ allow civilians to review footage of themselves or their relatives and request this be
released to the public and stored for at least two years
○ require body and dash cam footage to be stored externally and ensure district attorneys
and civilian oversight structures have access to the footage
○ include a disciplinary matrix clearly defining consequences for officers who fail to
adhere to the agency's body camera policy.
○ consider whether cameras or mandated footage are tampered with or unavailable as a
negative evidentiary factor in administrative and criminal proceedings
○ prevent officers from reviewing footage of an incident before completing initial reports,
statements or interviews about an incident
 ○ prohibit footage from being used in tandem with facial recognition software, as fillers in
photo arrays, or to create a database or pool of mugshots.
○ Ban police officers from taking cell phones or other recording devices without a person's
consent or warrant and give people the right to sue police departments if they take or
destroy these devices.
● Divest funds from the Sheriff’s office to community-based programs. ​We stand with our
colleagues at the Movement for Black Lives in demanding that resources are reallocated from
budgets at the discretion of Sheriff’s offices to programs and organizations focused on health
and education enabling our communities to thrive.

Without transparency around the policies and priorities above Florida deputies are free to continue to
engage in the use of excessive force that endangers our communities. If as you say, you “demand
accountability in order to maintain trust in the communities,” and, “stand with others in seeking that
accountability,” then you will comply with the demands above.

Sincerely,