Sheriff Knight won't run again (2024)

Sarasota County's chief law enforcement officer has worked to control opioid crisis, reduce jail population and modernize department

SARASOTA COUNTY— Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight has stood atop the community's legal and political landscape for more than a decade as the top cop and an influential power broker, but that will come to an end next year after Knight announced Thursdayhe will not seek another term in office.

Knight, 56,has been omnipresent at local events since first being elected in 2008, and his departure marks a big shift in a community where he worked to control the opioid crisis, reduce the jail population and modernize his department.

In November, during a media meet-and-greet at the sheriff's headquarters, he hinted at running for a fourth term, but following the event, he said he spoke to his wife, Tracy, about the energy a four-year commitment takes, and changed his mind.

Their deciding factor was family.

"Everything that my wife and I have done for over 30 years revolves around our daughters and our family," Knight said. "As much as I would like to stay, and I'm committed, a couple things: these are not easy jobs; the Sheriff's Office is bigger than the sheriff. I'm just a figurehead of it. I get to make the decisions and live with the decisions and answer for them. It takes a lot of energy to do it and do it right.

"Right now, I'm still energized."

Powerful figure

Outgoing and always quick with a joke, Knight's public persona is that of a genial public servant. But he also is a shrewd political operator who wielded tremendous power as the head of an agency with a $116.5 million budget and nearly 1,000 employees, and asa top Republican in a GOP-leaning county.

As sheriff he received plenty of accolades for his police work and also weathered a number of controversies.

In 2016, he had to answer to a Newtown mother for the death of her son over the use of force in the shooting death of Rodney Mitchell in 2012.

Mitchell, 23, was shot and killed after sheriff's Deputy Adam Shaw and Sgt. Troy Sasse pulled him over for a seat belt violation in June 2012 in Newtown. During the stop Mitchell's car lurched forward toward Sasse, leading both Sasse and Shaw to fire two bullets each into the Jeep, one striking Mitchell in the head and shrapnel injuring his cousin Dorian Gilmer.

Mitchell's mother, Natasha Clemons, and Gilmer filed a federal lawsuit against Shaw, Sasse and Knight for use of excessive force and claimed lack of departmental policies and supervision to prevent such situations.

Clemons and Gilmer lost the case.

"Those are the hard things we agonize over," Knight said.

The sheriff lauded his agency's work investigating former deputy Frank Bybee, who was convicted in 2017 of kidnapping, exploitation of the elderly, and 11 other felonies — a black mark on the agency.

"The Bybee case was something I was proud of, but disappointed in," said Knight, who walked Bybee, an 18-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office, to jail following his arrest. "Disappointed that one of our own people would do something like that, proud of the fact that we rapidly conducted a criminal investigation on ourselves without bringing in an outside agency."

As a politician he was highly influential within the local GOP and ventured into statewide politics by endorsing Attorney General Ashley Moody and former Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in his failed bid for governor.

Knight has long been viewed as a potential candidate for Congress, but last year he passed on the chance to run for the District 17 seat — now held by U.S. Rep. Greg Steube— when former U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney opted not to seek re-election.

Having run unopposed during his two re-election bids, Knight likely could have held the sheriff's job for many more years. Instead, he is stepping away from a 32-year law enforcement career that began with the Sarasota Police Department in 1987.

Knight subsequently spent 20 years with the Florida Highway Patrol, rising to the rank of major, before easily winning the race to become the 10th sheriff since Sarasota County separated from Manatee County in the early 1920s.

Top deputy seeks post

Knight's top deputy, Col. Kurt Hoffman, is the early frontrunner to replace him. Hoffman filed paperwork Thursday to run forsheriff.

"I am a candidate as of right now," Hoffman said Thursday. "I've had a 20-year relationship with the sheriff. He's a great friend and mentor, and I am privileged to be part of his command staff."

Knight said Hoffman has his endorsem*nt. "I'm going to support him and I've been endorsing him," he said. "He's a bright man; he's an attorney; he's been with me for the whole time I've been here; he knows the agency."

Having grown up in Venice and graduated in 1981from Venice High School — where he played on the baseball team — Knight has deep connections in a community where many people are from somewhere else. His highway patrol career took him around the state, but Knight's local connections and law enforcement experience made him a strong candidate when he sought to lead the Sheriff's Office.

Knight raised more money than his opponents and secured key endorsem*nts on his way to winning the GOP primary by more than 40 percentage points in 2008 and the general election by more than 30 percentage points. Nobody challenged him after that.

The economy was the big issue when Knight first ran for office. He took over the sheriff's job just as the Great Recession was taking hold and had to manage the agency for years on a tight budget.

The $86 million budget Knight had when first elected has since expanded by 35 percent as the community has grown and the sheriff has worked to keep up and make improvements.

Accolades for management

Former Sarasota County Commissioner Christine Robinsonpraised Knight's fiscal management, noting thatthere were years he didn't spend his full budget andgave money back to the county's general fund.

"I found that he was easy to work with," Robinson said."He met with you. He answered questions. It wasn't a mystery as to what was happening in his office as far as the budget was concerned."

Knight also came into office as the opioid crisis was taking off and the issue — along with the broader problem of drug addiction — has been a central focus for the sheriff. He pushed to crack down on so-called "pill mill" pain management clinics that were perceived as too loose inprescribing opioids, helping reduce the number of pain clinics by nearly 50 percent, a strategy that was mirrored in statewide legislation.

But the sheriff went beyond trying to reduce the supply of pain drugs and tried to cut down on demand for the drugs by helping addicts get treatment. In 2009 Knight partnered with the Salvation Army and other groups to establish what the Sheriff's Office describes as the "the first jail-based addiction recovery pods in the Southeast United States."

Inmates in the addiction recovery pods — which are operated at no cost to taxpayers and have been described as "rehab in jail" — go through a treatment program administered by the Salvation Army. The annual reunion events for graduates of the program and staff membersfeature emotional testimonials from former addicts about the life-changing help they received.

"He's been innovative in that regard," said Robinson, now executive director of the Argus Foundation in Sarasota. "He approaches it less from a stick standpoint and more so trying to rehabilitate folks and get them out and be productive citizens. He was ahead of the curve. That's in vogue now; people understand that's the way it needs to be and he was doing that years ago."

Ed Brodsky, the state attorney for the 12th Judicial Circuit covering Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties, also pointed to the recovery pod as a highlight of Knight's tenurebut added that the sheriff goes further to help inmates.

"They held a job fair the other day," Brodsky said. "He helped inmates get ID cards. Anything we can do to prevent that cycle of re-offending."

Brodsky said Knight also put the Sheriff's Officeon the cutting edgewhen it comes tousing forensics experts to gather touch DNA technology to solve crimes.

Refocusing, not retiring

Knight also has endured his share of controversy over the years. Some have questioned his leadership at times.

In 2010, Knight was criticized byresidents of his hometown when he defendedan off-duty Venicedeputy who shot and killed 20-year-old Tyler Spann. The young manrang the deputies doorbell and ran off as part of a drunken prank. The deputy gave chase, the two got into a scuffle and the deputy shot Spann, saying Spann reached for his gun. Following an investigation by the State Attorney's Office that deemed the shooting justified, Knight said the deputy acted "appropriately that night."

More recently, Knight was embroiled in controversy over funding for school safety. Some School Board members criticized his decision to stop paying half the cost for school resource officers.Knight called one of the School Board members "dumb" in a text message that became public.

It was a rare instance of Knight publicly clashing with fellow elected officials. His supporters say his ability to work collaboratively and productively with a range of community leaders has been a hallmark of his career.

"There's been a lot going on here in the last 10 years ... there's been some changes in the community and some real challenges," said former Sarasota County Commissioner Paul Caragiulo. "And you've got to have someone who's willing to collaborate, and Tom's an easy guy to work with. He's very effective at building relationships with people."

Hoffman has strong support in the community. Caragiulo, Robinson and Sarasota state Sen. Joe Gruters all praised him Thursday.

"Today it came up that probably the best sheriff in the entire country announced that he is no longer going to run," Gruters, who also serves as Sarasota GOP chair and Republican Party of Floridachair, told the Sarasota Tiger Bay Club."Sheriff Tom Knight, thank you for all you do for our community. Literally, there's probably nobody better than you. And Kurt Hoffman, you're going to do an amazing job replacing him."

Knight, who volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters, said he is interested in working with local nonprofits, along with his wife, to provide services for children. He says he is far from retired.

"I'm not retiring, just not running for office again," he said. "I'm not a retired cop. I'm a retired executive who was able to navigate the waters of law, regulations, media, community and all these situations we have to manage through in an ethical manner. That's a special skill set."

He has about 16 more months to find a job.

Staff writers Emily Wunderlich and Lee Williamscontributed to this report.

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