SEMINOLE, Fla. – When criminals are released from prison, the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) is tasked with keeping a close eye on them, especially sex offenders and career offenders.
Currently, some 6,800 offenders are being supervised by FDC in just Seminole and Brevard counties.
But FDC, which manages Florida’s state prisons, also ensures compliance outside of prisons.
FDC is called into communities regularly when neighbors report problems caused by an offender under supervision.
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FDC dispatches a quick-reaction team called S.O.T.E.C. (Searching Offenders To Ensure Compliance) to make contact with an offender who may be re-offending, search the home and property if needed by and ultimately solve the problem.
Who must be in compliance?
Anyone released from prison on probation, under house arrest, or designated a career offender, sex offender, or sex predator.
Melbourne-based Specialist Ofc. Jeremy Underwood supervises S.O.T.E.C. in Seminole and Brevard Counties.
“Sometimes we’re searching cell phones, sometimes we’re searching computers, sometimes we’re searching for drugs or weapons, we find all kinds of weapons,” said Underwood. “Many of them may be violent felony offenders, maybe sexual offenders.”
In Seminole County, S.O.T.E.C. recently was sent out alongside the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office after neighbors called in tips about drug activity next door.
“We got a call about a house that was potentially having drugs in it, it was a problem house in the neighborhood,” Underwood said. “When we brought the offender out in cuffs there were many people in the neighborhood coming up and saying thank you. Thank you for keeping our neighborhood safe. Thank you for putting our neighborhood back the way it used to be.”
How is S.O.T.E.C. activated?
“It can happen in many ways, it could happen with tips that we get from the community, then we pass the tips along to local law enforcement to help us with the search,” Underwood said. “A lot of our tips come from law enforcement where they contact us, they know the offenders are on probation and they reach out to us in order to better solve and investigate.”
Underwood said neighbors are often aware that an offender under supervision lives next door.
“A lot of times [neighbors] they’ll call us directly,” Underwood said. “They’ll be familiar with this individual in the home and know that they’re on supervision because they’ll regularly see us.”
Rachel Richardson, FDC Seminole and Brevard Counties’ Circuit Administrator said many tips are about offenders with drugs and or guns.
“We want to ensure we have a specialized team [S.O.T.E.C.] that trains and is committed to working with law enforcement to ensure public safety,” Richardson said. “We’ve always acted on tips, but this team has taken it to a new level. And basically, they go out immediately and act on it, they work with law enforcement to ensure that we get a good result.”
Richardson said S.O.T.E.C. has been so successful in Seminole and Orange Counties where it started that it is now expanding statewide.
“It is very successful, very supported by our administration because they see the results and they see the results we’ve had statewide,” Richardson said. “So it is going statewide to all the judicial circuits in the state. Last year we took 100 firearms off the street, about 90,000 grams of illegal drugs, about 200 lb. So those are all good things when these are people on probation that shouldn’t be having these things in their homes.”
Offenders on probation are required to report in-person to FDC offices to comply with the terms of their probation. Sex offenders and sexual predators are frequently visited at their homes by FDC officers.
FDC has configured four mini-buses to be placed in areas around the state where offenders who are required to register or check in regularly may have difficulty doing so.
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