TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – On Friday, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office announced a new task force designed to reduce crime where many people gather to enjoy the outdoors.
Nearly one-third of Leon County is in the national forest. LCSO says crime happens in the forest just like it does in the city, which is why they are creating a multi-agency task force to fight crime impacting the area and surrounding communities.
“Today marks an important step forward in how we protect not only our public lands but how we protect our citizens who live in and around public lands,” Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil said at the Friday press conference.
The Forest Preservation Task Force is a partnership between the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, the Leon County Commission, the U.S. Forest Service and FWC.
“We are aligning with our state and federal partners in a coordinated effort to arrest all persons involved in criminal activity in our forest,” McNeil said.
Crime in our area:
Officials say the task force was created to address growing illegal activity on forest lands and in neighborhoods along Highway 20. The sheriff says common crimes include drug trafficking and people involved in labor and human trafficking.
“These are not what you might say isolated issues. They require a unified response if we’re going to make a dent in this activity,” he said.
The sheriff’s office says that more than a year ago, they committed Deputy Tim Roche to be their forestry deputy through a grant with the U.S. Forest Service after receiving over 1,000 calls for service in western Leon forest areas in 2024.
But now, they want to do more, and that’s where the task force comes in.
“The data that comes back from the work that we all do out there will now be able to be collected and see where we need to focus those efforts as we do that and those resources,” LCSO’S Chief of Special Operations Lee Majors said.
The sheriff says they will work together with the other law enforcement organizations to arrest anyone involved in criminal activity.
“Any of those persons who live in those areas, be assured we’re going to be there to help you, and secondly, want to send a message to the violators that we will, in fact, come after you and arrest you if you are committing crimes in our forest,” McNeil said.
In terms of measuring success, Sheriff McNeil says they’ll compare crime numbers from before and after the task force and use that data to decide if more or fewer resources are needed going forward.
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