ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — A year after taking office following one of Florida's most controversial sheriff's elections, St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard Del Toro says his focus remains on rebuilding trust and preparing for unprecedented growth.
"I can't believe it's been a year already," Del Toro said. "I'm living my dream, and if I'm sleeping, do not wake me up, because I'm having the best dream of my life."
WATCH BELOW: St. Lucie County sheriff reflects on first year in office
Del Toro assumed the role on Jan. 7, 2025, after campaigning on promises to restore accountability and transparency following intense criticism of his predecessor's social media use, transparency with the public and spending.
"We hit the ground running right away," Del Toro said. "I mean, we instituted a reorganization here that just changed the entire structure. The structure of the organization really had not changed in the last 40 years under the previous three sheriffs. So that was something that just needed to happen."
The reorganization separated the agency into operations and administration divisions and increased supervision at multiple levels. Del Toro said the changes have created an expectation of excellence rather than making it the exception.
"We're implementing our standards of performance, which we said from day one was going to help us with our goals of becoming the safest county in the state of Florida," he said.
The sheriff's office also straightened out pay plans that had been "pretty much upside down," hurting recruiting and retention efforts. Del Toro credited county commissioners for providing the budget money needed to make the agency competitive with other law enforcement agencies in the region.
Rebranding
The sheriff said he immediately shifted focus away from personal branding toward core law enforcement duties.
"It's one of the biggest changes I did, was I took my name off of everything," Del Toro said. "It's just our brand is the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office. That's it. It's not about me. No one's going to buy into the changes we want to make, and I don't think it sends the right message to the organization."
Preparing for explosive growth
St. Lucie County's population is expected to grow from its current 270,000 residents to 600,000 in the coming years. Del Toro said his experience dealing with growth during his 27-year career at the Port St. Lucie Police Department, where he served as chief, prepared him for this challenge.
"When I started at the city of Port St. Lucie 27 years ago, we were 70,000 residents. It was a bedroom community. We're now 270,000 residents just in that part of the city alone," Del Toro said.
The sheriff's office is now developing a strategic plan to address growth while maintaining public safety within budget constraints, including determining how many deputies need to be added and focusing on leadership development for younger supervisors who will lead the agency in the future.
"We want to be the safest county, have the highest standards and values and be fiscally transparent, responsible with our budget," Del Toro said. "We're going to be focused ... on how we need to change in order to handle the growth in this community."
Emergency preparedness improvements
Following criticism of the previous administration's handling of search and rescue efforts during Hurricane Milton, Del Toro said his office has implemented comprehensive emergency management plans.
"You can't wait for an opportunity or an incident to happen and then not have a plan," Del Toro said. "You have to have a plan in place."
The sheriff's office now has operational plans for any type of large-scale event, whether natural disasters or community-wide events that require security assessments and threat evaluations.
"Everybody's going to know where they're working if, in fact, we do have a hurricane, what shift they're going to be working," said Del Toro. "You know, when we make mistakes, we try to learn from them, like we talked about before, own them, and move forward in a direction where we're focused on continuous improvements."
Immigration enforcement
Del Toro's first year brought immediate challenges, including federal immigration initiatives impacting his agency just a month after taking office.
Del Toro addressed the controversial 287(g) immigration enforcement program, saying he ran on a platform of combating illegal immigration and supports federal efforts.
"It is not our primary focus. Each and every single day, we work with the federal government. That's their job," Del Toro said. "When we're called upon, we do work with them."
He emphasized that the sheriff's office is not conducting door-to-door searches but rather enforcing court orders for people who have been told to leave the country and whose time has expired.
Building trust and culture
Del Toro acknowledged that building trust within the 800-person organization has been more challenging than he initially expected.
"I made a strategic error when I kind of got into the restructuring and trying to fix all the problems that I thought were important to them, where they wanted to build a relationship with me too," he said.
The sheriff said he plans to spend more time getting to know employees across the decentralized organization, which includes deputies in schools, the courthouse and the jail.
Looking ahead
For the remaining three years of his term, Del Toro outlined three main priorities:
- Managing growth
- Leadership development within the organization
- Implementing crime reduction strategies
He hopes to implement these goals while working toward national accreditation. Currently, the agency is state-accredited, but Del Toro said national accreditation brings higher standards and more training.
The sheriff's office also recently started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation to raise money for community partnerships and support other organizations like the Boys and Girls Club.
"I'm not here to benefit myself. I'm not here to use this as a stepping stone to go to something else in politics," Del Toro said. "I'm a law enforcement officer — that's been my entire career."
Del Toro described his role as "an honor, honor and blessing every day" while acknowledging the rapid pace of change during his first year in office.
"This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy."
