- February 5, 2025
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With Senate Bill 7026 requiring one armed person at each school, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office is still trying to find ways to place enough security on each campus throughout the county to meet that requirement.
However, a shortage of deputies has not helped in the process to provide the needed personnel at schools.
During a Thursday, June 7, neighborhood meeting, Sheriff Mike Chitwood told attendees that the Sheriff's Office is currently down 40 deputies and that it has been difficult finding qualified people to hire.
Chitwood said that just last week the Sheriff's Office had 167 applicants, of which only 17 people were eligible to be hired. He said the main problem was applicants were flunking the drug tests and polygraph exams.
"In 1987 when I became a cop they would ask, did we use marijuana in the last 10 years?" Chitwood said. "Now we ask if you've used it in the last 18 months because it's such a different generation."
But when it comes to putting deputies and school safety officers at each campus, Chitwood said he would like to not only have the bare minimum of armed security but possibly arm qualified former law enforcement officers who now are staff or administration.
Because of the bill out of Tallahassee, each middle and high school will eventually need to have either a deputy or police officer on campus, and every elementary school will need a school safety officer such as retired military or law enforcement. These SSOs would need to have a background check, interviews and about 175 hours of training. They would have no powers of arrest and be on campus solely for the purpose of protecting the approximately 60,0000 Volusia students.
Just this year, there were 31 arrests as Volusia Schools. Chitwood said that the Sheriff's Department probably investigated four times that number of threats.
There are 50 SSO spots that need to be filled in Volusia County. According to Chitwood, the Sheriff's Department has received 20 applications so far.
During Thursday's meeting, Chitwood said that between April 1 and June 5 of this year, there were 194 tickets written, 224 traffic stops and 16 arrests made in the Port Orange area.
Chitwood said that after the last neighborhood meeting, one of the captains came up with a strategy to align patrol zones in the area as well. Chitwood said there had been one burglary where copper was stolen from a house that was under construction and another where a Mercedes that was taken from Spruce Creek was later found in New Mexico.
Chitwood said the Sheriff's Office is still trying to understand how someone could get through the security, especially as keys are needed.
However, arrests that have been made seem to make a dent in overall crime, he said.
"There are certain members of the community that, when they go to jail, there's no crime," Chitwood said. "So, clearly some of the individuals you're telling us about are in custody still and as a result, you can see almost nothing happening."
