Sarasota school district names new police chief

Duane Oakes, a lieutenant in the Sarasota County Schools Police Department, will assume the role of police chief and executive director of safety and security in the new year, the school district announced Friday.

Oakes will step into the role Jan. 11, 2022, following Tim Enos, who is retiring after the winter school break.

 Enos had been a captain with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and emergency operations bureau commander before coming to the school district’s police force in late 2018.

Oakes began with the school district police force as a sergeant when it was formed in April 2018 and rose to the rank of lieutenant in 2019. He’s been a member of the U.S. Army’s Military Police, director of the Law Enforcement Academy at Trinidad State (Colorado) and rose through the ranks of the police department in Alamosa, Colorado to become chief.

Though there were several options possible when the district began considering ways to adhere to new state laws meant to bulk up school security after the Feb. 14, 2018, attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Sarasota’s school board ended up launching its own police force.