- November 17, 2024
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Flagler County Undersheriff Rick Staly has announced that he will retire, effective April 17. Staly joined the Flagler County Sheriff's Office in January 2013 as undersheriff and has been a sworn law enforcement officer in Florida for 40 years.
Staly was most recently in the news in conjunction with an ethics complaint against Sheriff Jim Manfre. According to the ethics commission's report, Staly allowed Manfre to use Staly's cabin in Tennessee for a vacation, and the two men disagreed about how it should be reported as a gift. Read that story here.
Staly began his law enforcement career in 1975 as a municipal police officer in Oviedo and later Altamonte Springs. After several years of municipal service, Staly accepted a position with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office as a deputy in Orlando. Staly was promoted through the ranks where he ultimately served as Undersheriff and retired from Orange County in 2001. After his retirement, Staly remained a fully certified Florida reserve deputy with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and entered into private security management. In 2008 Staly started his own successful private security company, which was sold to a national security company in 2012. He joined the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office as the right-hand man to newly elected Sheriff Jim Manfre.
During his 40 years of public safety service, Staly received numerous awards, commendations and medals, including the Medal of Valor and Purple Heart after being shot three times while saving the life of a fellow deputy who had been assaulted while investigating a disturbance call.
"I would like to thank the sheriff for affording me with the opportunity to work with the many professional men and women of the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. It has been an experience that I have truly enjoyed and will miss, especially my Friday night patrols," Staly said in the press release. “I am especially proud that overall crime in Flagler County was decreased 12% and clearance rates increased 6% during my tenure as Flagler County undersheriff."
"Undersheriff Staly has been instrumental in implementing the agency's first Crime Scene Investigation Unit and first Fugitive Unit, along with our Touch DNA and Juvenile Assessment and Monitoring program," Manfre said in the press release. "He is a professional law enforcement officer and a professional police administrator. We wish him the best in retirement."