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Benton Has Long List Of Accomplishments As Sheriff

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2008

Susan Benton, 58, was the first elected female sheriff in Florida's history. In August, she was elected by her 66 fellow sheriffs to chair the 2009 slate of officers for the 115-year-old Florida Sheriffs Association. The sheriff supervises a staff of 360 employees, earns $120,000 per year, and administers a $27-million annual budget.

Benton has been a widow for nine years, but still has family responsibilities with one son at home. Her 10-12 hour days are filled with phone calls, crime scenes and meetings with public officials, police officers and private citizens. She comes from a law enforcement family. Her late husband was a state trooper; her great-grandfather was a police chief in St. Augustine.

A Democrat with 26 years of law enforcement experience, Benton has an associate's degree from Miami-Dade Community College; a bachelor's in administration of justice from St. Thomas University; a master's of public administration from Troy State University; and a certified public manager from Florida State University.

Q: Describe your management style and how that will be seen or demonstrated in the county?

As far as management styles I would describe myself as a combination of both autocratic and permissive, particularly with the nature of public safety. We are not only acting in crisis with very serious consequences, we are running a very big business. I find that personally I would most often, in the daily operational business, be permissive in my management style, which includes folks in the decision-making process. When it comes to leading an incident command, we are trained in public safety that everyone knows exactly who their leader is and what role we each play in the outcome of the event; but that ultimately, the incident commander makes the decisions, which lends to the autocratic style.

For me in the role as your sheriff, there are important distinctions between a manager and a leader that are very important to talk about. As a manager I administer the daily operations of the office, which include a very wide variety of functions. Managers maintain daily operations, they focus on the organizational structure, ask the when and how questions, keeping an eye of the bottom line and they do things right by policy and procedure. However, good leadership is most important to the Office of Sheriff, who represents the people and their well being and future community success. As a leader I must be innovative, always looking for new solutions; develop processes that are efficient and effective; maintain a connection to the people, both staff and community and support their needs; always be prepared to challenge the status quo, keeping an eye on the horizon with vision for something better. Finally, I think one last important difference between manager and leader is that as a leader you always are trying to do the right things rather than just doing things right.

One lesson that I have learned is that vision without action is only a dream, while vision with action can change the world. We have accomplished the later by creating a community driven vision with a plan for change and have executed and accounted for the plan. We have made many, many changes within these last four years, learned some tough lessons along the way but we are changing the way public safety services are delivered in Highlands County and for that your sheriff and staff must have courage and stamina, while practicing professionalism to maintain forward movement at the direction of our community.

Q: What can you do, or have done, that makes the biggest impact on public safety?

Here is a snap shop of accomplishments in these first four years:

We developed a promotional process to insure uniformity and equity in selection.

We have put in place significant measures to control inmate health care costs.

We completed application and the re-write of all policies and procedures to meet accreditation standards that are critical to life, health and safety; we received accreditation from the Commission of Florida Law Enforcement accreditation in June, 2008.

We set in motion actions aimed at reducing recidivism including in-house mental health and substance abuse counseling and treatment programs.

We implemented a step pay plan that includes on call compensation and equitable holiday pay bringing members to industry standard salaries in order to attract and retain professional law enforcement members.

We issued the first ever local sexual predator publication and have taken an aggressive approach in the monitoring of sexual predators and offenders and have continued it annually.

We empowered all patrol deputies in traffic enforcement and armed them with speed measuring equipment to respond to community demand for traffic control. Citations have increased from about 2,000 a year to an average of 8,000.

We increased the number of deputies and supervisors, by approximately 40 members resulting in patrol zone assignments for better coverage and response.

We expanded the Crime Prevention Program to include advanced practitioner certifications of unit members in crime prevention by environmental design, residential and business burglary, and elderly crimes; also sent patrol deputies to crime prevention training to provide this service while on scene at the original incident report.

We completed installation and conversion of updated software to SmartCOP and consolidated communications for all municipalities, fire and EMS, saving over $2 million dollars county-wide.

We facilitated the development of a Drug Endangered Child Protocol to reduce risk to children exposed to methamphetamine use and production.

Implemented major information technology upgrades to include in car computers, cameras, tag recognition equipment, SmartCOP software implementation with direct link to document imaging, initial Web site design, and many additional tools and training to increase our ability to fight the national rise in violent crime rates, while maintaining a minimal crime rate increase but increasing arrests more and 50 percent.

Upgraded jail video surveillance and master control system to increase detention security.

We installed a video and audio recording system for inmate visitation to improve security and further investigations.

We installed HEPA-filtered negative air pressure system for our jail holding cells to enhanced health protection within our facility of infectious diseases.

Established patrol K-9 support by adding 1 bloodhound and 4 patrol dogs, bring the total to 8, for 24/7 coverage of this valuable law enforcement tool.

Organized and implemented Operation Safe Neighborhood, a problem solving unit of deputies who can perform proactive law enforcement while building importance neighborhood relationships.

We assumed responsibility for the management and operation of the County 911 system, at the request of the Board of County Commissioners.

We assumed responsibility for and the management of the Pre-Trail Release Program at the request of the Board of County Commissioners.

Substations were opened at Lakeshore Mall and north Sebring/Avon Park area.

Worked to initiate an agreement with the Department of Children and Families for a new Special Victims Unit; working in partnership with other state and local agencies for the comprehensive joint investigation of child and adult abuse. We hope to add domestic violence and sex crimes to this unit when staffing becomes available, and enhancing collaborative community care and efforts.

We participated in the Child ID Program.

Introduced and distributed the Computer Cop Project to help parents protect their children on-line.

We implemented a Performance Management System and Administrative Investigations System to review performance and to intervene early with problem behavior.

We aggressively investigated marijuana grow operations, ranking in the Top 10 in the state in marijuana eradication.

Our strategic plan also outlines specific objectives to be accomplished through 2011. We hold ourselves accountable to accomplishing the plan within budgetary constraints.

One important future plan is to work cooperatively with the Board of County Commissioners to identify other cost saving measures such as inmate labor in county facilities management.

Another future issue will be to continue to identify the effective delivery of patrol services to the community. There is a constant demand by the community for patrol services, we will be looking at putting more command and control closer to the streets.

Q: How should a sheriff's office be measured by the public?

For me the greatest measuring tool is the public trust. Can the public trust us to use their money wisely to deliver these very valuable services on their behalf? Can the public trust us to police ourselves and be willing to admit when we were wrong? Another indication of the public trust is taking us for granted; can the members of our community move about with their daily business without fear, feeling safe to engage in their lives and community activities? If you can take us for granted, then we are doing our job. For me our primary role is not just putting bad guys in jail; it is maintaining an environment where our community values are reflected by citizens being engaged with family, work and play without fear. As far as the community measuring the delivery of services provided by the sheriff's office; we have in our strategic plan to implement a community survey instrument of our services.

Q: What gives you the most satisfaction in law enforcement?

Wow, this is a good question for me. I think the most fulfilling part of the job for me is seeing a child saved from abuse, seeing a person realize that a life of substance abuse and crime is not very rewarding and make decisions to become and productive community member, being able to help a member of our office with personal difficulty when they still have to come to work each day taking care of other people, working hard to find resources to solve problems, and ensuring that bad guys are investigated and brought to the prosecutors who are victimizing our vulnerable citizens. The list could go on for me; but my satisfaction surely does not come from money or power, but purely from the sense of service in helping folks in crisis.

Q: Why are you the best choice for sheriff?

I am the best choice for sheriff because I do the job for the right reasons, to lead our members to support the community and its citizens to enjoy the quality of life that they expect. My years of experience and firsthand knowledge of our community needs and resources allow me to help provide solutions. I have advanced education both academic and professional that prepares me to fulfill the role and responsibilities as sheriff.

Finally, I do it because I care, not because I need another retirement or because I am bored. As sheriff you put yourself out there to be beat up by the many controversial and critical roles that law enforcement becomes involved in; this is certainly not the fun part, however, with commitment and courage to protect and provide for the safety of our community I am steadfast in my desire to serve and passionate about protecting you and your families.

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