Tag Archive for: Orange County

Orange Sheriff’s Office Revamping Juvenile Policies

I don’t know any law enforcement officers who got into this line of work to arrest kids. I know when I entered the profession 30 years ago, I was hoping to help kids — to give them a compassionate interaction with a cop, not their first…
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In Florida, Your Kid’s Chance of Arrest at School Depends on Where You Live

After a student was caught cutting class at Seminole High School’s ninth grade center in April 2019, a trio of Sanford police officers told the girl to get in a golf cart so she could be taken back to campus. She refused. “I’m…
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Morgan & Morgan Firm Joins State Attorney, Public Defender to Launch Community Bail Fund

Attorneys with the Orlando-based law firm Morgan & Morgan joined Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala and Public Defender Robert Wesley Thursday to launch a nonprofit fund that would give bail money to low-income people who can’t…
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Florida’s Flawed Baker Act Rips Thousands of Kids from School

Over the past seven years, children have been taken from public schools in Tampa Bay more than 7,500 times and temporarily placed in mental health facilities. They often leave campus handcuffed in the back of police cruisers. Some are as…
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UCF Medical Students Give Free Hepatitis A Shots, Medical Care to Orlando’s Homeless

For more than nine months now, a group of volunteer UCF medical students have been giving free hepatitis A shots to the homeless in Orlando. Once a month, on a Tuesday evening, they set up their portable tent and a few tables…
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Fired Orlando Cop Who Arrested 6-Year-Olds Has Discipline History That Includes Excessive Force, Profiling Claim

The Orlando police officer who was fired Monday for arresting two 6-year-old students at their school has a disciplinary history that includes an incident in which he stunned a trespassing suspect with a Taser five times and an allegation…
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PD9 Hosts Its Annual Law Camp with the Boys and Girls Club

This summer, Robert Wesley, Public Defender of the Ninth Circuit, partnered with Dr. Candice Bridge from the University of Central Florida (UCF) and the National Center for Forensic Science (NCFS) to provide a Forensic Science Law Camp for the…
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Meadow Woods Middle Resource Deputy Disciplined for Kissing Student on Cheek

A former Meadow Woods Middle School resource deputy was suspended last year after an investigation found he kissed a female student on the cheek and repeatedly allowed another girl to skip classes so the two of them could talk, records…
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Orange Cops Relying More on Citations, Not Arrests, for Juveniles — But Still Lag Other Urban Counties, Report Finds

Police and deputies in Orange County are giving teenagers in trouble more civil citations instead of arresting them for misdemeanors, but other urban counties in Florida still give citations instead of arresting minors in a far higher share…
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All Orange Elementary Schools Now Have Deputies on Campus, Sheriff Says

All of Orange County’s traditional public elementary schools now have an armed officer on campus, the sheriff announced this week. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office had struggled since the start of the school year to provide enough deputies…
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Orange County to Spend an Extra $20 Million on Kids in 9 ZIP Codes with High Childhood Poverty, Juvenile Crime, Abuse

Within the next 60 days, Orange County plans to start spending an additional $20 million on children’s services by targeting nine ZIP codes with the highest rates of childhood poverty, juvenile crime, student homelessness, teen pregnancy…
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Orange County Juvenile Justice Arrests Plummet

Orange County saw a dramatic drop in juvenile arrests in the past year and particularly in felony arrests of juveniles, following reforms pushed by State Attorney Aramis Ayala and implemented by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and other…