ORLANDO, Fla. — The Osceola County Police Department says it is “over 100 [officers] short” of the nationwide projected police force size, per Sheriff Christopher Blackmon.
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Sheriff Blackmon joined Scott Anez on Orlando’s Morning News to discuss the department’s goals for 2026, one of which includes hiring more deputies.
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“We are way understaffed,” said Blackmon. “We’ve got to get more deputies on the road and continue with the quality service we’re delivering now.”
When asked how many deputies he would ideally like to hire, Sheriff Blackmon said between 40 and 45 deputies.
“We are over 100 short, based on the numbers nationwide [with] the formula they use,” he said. “I’d like to start off with 40 to 45 this year, and we’ll see what we can do in the future.”
As for what that exact formula is, the answer, according to the team at LegalClarity.org, varies.
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Common ways to determine an adequate police force size include measuring “the officer-to-population ratio, expressed as officers per 1,000 residents,” taking into account staffing density.
In 2024, a survey by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement utilized this metric and found that there were 1.65 officers per 1,000 population in the state of Florida.
In Osceola County, the study found there were 476 officers for a 300,116 population, averaging to 1.59 officers per 1,000 residents, 0.06 officers lower than the statewide average.
The 2024 census estimates the population of Osceola County to be 468,058 residents, meaning that the police force would need to be approximately 468 officers.
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“We’ve got to have a five-year strategic plan, which we are laying out now for the county, so we can show them that we need to grow along with the county’s growth,” said Blackmon. “In the last five years, this agency has not grown at all.”
Blackmon cites the previous administration’s missteps as a reason for the lack of bodies, as opposed to an inherent recruiting problem.
“We’re still providing our good response time and good service, but we need more,” he said. “We’ve got specialized units we need to control crime under. We need more people and more deputies on the road to get out there and work, and we’re gonna attack that this year with the county.”
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