Sarasota Sheriff candidates debate online

The race for Sarasota County Sheriff will be decided in the Aug. 18 primary, and the two candidates faced off in a virtual forum Wednesday. 

Col. Kurt Hoffman and retired deputy Paul Fern are both Republican candidates who hope to succeed Sheriff Tom Knight. 

Through a Facebook Live forum hosted by Gulf Coast Latin Chamber of Commerce, the candidates debated such topics as the use of body cameras, civil citations, diversity in the department and plans to address systemic racism. 

Do you support the use of body cameras? 

Fern

Fern said he is firmly in support of the use of body cameras, and if the Sarasota County Sheriff’s office were to purchase them, it would save the department money in the long run. 

“A lot of the times when you watch videos, you only see the last 20 or 30 seconds of an incident,” Fern said. 

Although he said fully equipping the deputies with body cameras would cost close to $2 million, there are several grants the department could apply for to help with the purchase. 

Hoffman

Hoffman said the grants Fern spoke of were highly competitive, and the district has been unsuccessful in the past. 

Although he said he’s not against them, he doesn’t want the county to get caught up in a national debate and should instead focus on county-specific incidents. 

“In Sarasota County, our internal affairs cases are down 61%, so we’re not some of those other jurisdictions we see on TV,” Hoffman said. “We don’t have a lot of complaints from citizens as we interact with them.”

Rather than spend money on body cameras, Hoffman said he’d like to focus on training to make deputies good stewards and put more law enforcement officers on the street. 

Do you support the use of civil citations to divert people from the jail? 

Fern

Fern said he was in support of civil citation programs in nonviolent criminal offenses because it saves the county money by not having as many inmates. 

“There’s no reason to tie up the court system with people that have committed nonviolent crimes and low level misdemeanor crimes,” Fern said. 

Hoffman

Hoffman said the agency has issued almost 600 civil citations since 2015 and he would look to continue that trend should he be elected. 

He also said he would like to continue programming that was started during Knight’s tenure that has helped lower jail population and recidivism rates. 

Do you have plans to increase diversity in the sheriff's department? 

Fern

Fern said to his knowledge, there are three people of color who are sworn officers in the department and should he be elected, he would seek to increase that number. 

He said he would like to hire a recruitment officer to recruit at the collegiate level and create partnerships to recruit more people of color. 

“We can find qualified applicants if we expand our searches instead of just in the local area,” Fern said. “I think we’re just not looking hard enough and far enough to find these applicants.” 

Hoffman

Hoffman said about 11% of the agency is diverse. He said the county has a Hispanic population of about 9% and an African American population of 4%, and the department is about 7.9% Hispanic and 5% African American. 

“We’re very close to the demographics of our community, but we can always do better,” Hoffman said. 

He said he would like to continue creating a diverse Human Resource department and working to promote diverse candidates within the department. 

Would you consider implementing changes — ban chokeholds, require warning before shooting and ban shooting at moving vehicles, to name a few — the Eight Can Wait Plan suggests?

Fern

Fern said he agreed with many of the points brought up by the Eight Can Wait campaign, but there are some instances where certain methods are necessary. 

For example, he mentioned that shooting on a moving vehicle could be necessary if the driver is attempting to hit an officer. 

“If your life depends on it, you have to do what you can to survive,” Fern said. “But to put a chokehold on someone to gain control, that’s unacceptable.” 

Hoffman

Hoffman said the Sheriff’s Office already complies with seven of the eight points set forth by the campaign. The only one the department doesn’t comply with is shooting at moving vehicles, because officers have been killed by vehicular assault. 

“So we're basically we're doing seven of those eight right now, and we don't plan on changing our policy on shooting at moving vehicles,” he said. 

Do you think there is systemic racism in policing? 

Fern

Fern said he doesn’t think racism plays into most law enforcement officer’s decisions. 

“The George Floyd thing had nothing to do with racism, in my opinion, it was just an officer committing murder,” Fern said. 

He said the department should work to hire, train and promote strong leaders who will then cause a “trickle down effect” to the entire department. 

Hoffman

Hoffman said he does think systemic racism exists and he will work to address it. 

He said the department does a lot of training on the issue, and he is currently working on a screening model that would help identify implicit bias in applicants to keep them from being hired in the first place. 

“You damn sure can root it out and it is your responsibility when you identify it to get individuals that are racist out of your policing agencies.”