{"id":419407,"date":"2026-10-05T17:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T17:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419407\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T17:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T17:50:10","slug":"leon-county-school-arrests-drop-as-use-of-diversion-programs-surges-tallahassee-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419407\/","title":{"rendered":"Leon County School Arrests Drop as Use of Diversion Programs Surges \u2013 Tallahassee Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arrests at Leon County schools declined sharply during the 2025-26 school year while the use of alternatives to arrest increased significantly, according to the latest annual report from the Leon County Sheriff\u2019s Office School Resource Deputy program.<\/p>\n

LCSO reported 60 arrests across the schools it serves in 2025-26, down from 91 the previous year, a decline of approximately 34%. At the same time, deputies recorded 132 civil citations and 761 diversions, compared with 106 civil citations and 276 diversions in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

The change was particularly noticeable at Leon County\u2019s five major public high schools. Arrests at Leon, Lincoln, Rickards, Godby and Chiles fell from 65 in 2024-25 to 30 in 2025-26 \u2014 a 54% decline.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The latest numbers reverse the trend highlighted by Tallahassee Reports last year, when arrests at the five high schools increased 38%, from 47 in 2023-24 to 65 in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

The new data also indicate that the decline in arrests was not simply the result of fewer incidents requiring law-enforcement attention. LCSO recorded 475 criminal complaints in 2025-26, virtually unchanged from 470 the previous year. Instead, the numbers coincide with a substantial increase in the use of diversion programs and civil citations as alternatives to arrest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Diversions increased from 276 to 761, or approximately 176%, while civil citations increased about 25%, from 106 to 132.<\/p>\n

At the high-school level, LCSO reported 30 arrests, 73 civil citations and 154 diversions during 2025-26.<\/p>\n

The largest reductions in high-school arrests occurred at Leon and Rickards. Leon High School arrests fell from 36 to eight, a 78% decrease, while Rickards arrests declined from 17 to three, an 82% decrease.<\/p>\n

Godby High School moved in the opposite direction, with arrests increasing from five to 11. Lincoln remained unchanged at six arrests, while Chiles increased from one to two.<\/p>\n

The numbers suggest a significant change in how student offenses are being handled: criminal complaints remained essentially flat, but substantially fewer incidents resulted in arrests as the Sheriff\u2019s Office increased its use of alternatives to the juvenile justice system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arrests at Leon County schools declined sharply during the 2025-26 school year while the use of alternatives to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-419407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}