Florida Awards Hundreds of Law Enforcement Bonuses

Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) administration has awarded bonuses to hundreds of new law enforcement officers, the governor announced Monday.

“As of today, we have awarded more than 600 of the $5,000 newly employed law enforcement bonuses as part of the Florida Law Enforcement Recruitment Bonus Program,” DeSantis announced, less than a week before Christmas.

“We are proud to welcome law enforcement officers from across the nation to Florida, where they are appreciated,” he added:

As of today, we have awarded more than 600 of the $5,000 newly employed law enforcement bonuses as part of the Florida Law Enforcement Recruitment Bonus Program.

We are proud to welcome law enforcement officers from across the nation to Florida, where they are appreciated.

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) December 19, 2022

DeSantis has long stood as supporter of law enforcement in the midst of far-left calls to defund police.

“We understand the vital, vital role that law enforcement plays in a situation like this [hurricane response], of course, because if you look at the people that were helping rescue folks, you had police officers, sheriff’s deputies, you had state agencies, [the] Coast Guard,” the governor said during a press conference in October, where he announced $5,000 bonuses to Cape Coral law enforcement officers.

“Morale is very low, and we’ve seen the morale — really since the Floyd riots — has been probably the lowest we’ve seen in a long time,” he continued, explaining that his administration saw an opportunity to “reward people who are going into this profession.”

“We want to value people that are going into this profession,” DeSantis added, explaining that new recruits from qualify for these bonuses:

So if you’re coming from one of those states or one of those other cities where you’re not being treated well and you come to take a job in any of our departments … you qualify for a $5,000 bonus and not just for people coming from out of state. If you have new people within Florida who have not been in law enforcement and they make the decision to go into law enforcement, they are also eligible for the bonuses that we were able to enact. And so, you know, there’s some places where law enforcement’s targeted. We’re doing the $5,000 dollar bonus here, which is going out in a much better direction. I think people appreciate it. So we have folks here today that are gonna be rewarded with these $5,000 bonus checks.

Some of the officers awarded bonus checks that day were from blue New York, as well as Maryland and Georgia.

In August, several members of law enforcement showed strong support for the governor after he took action, suspending woke State Attorney Andrew Warren.

DeSantis said at the time:

We don’t elect people in one part of the state to have veto power over what the entire state decides on these important issues. The constitution of Florida has vested the veto power in the governor, not an individual state attorneys and so when you flagrantly violate your oath of office, when you make yourself above the law, you have violated your duty.

“It’s about ensuring our loved ones are safe. It’s about the victims and their voices. There aren’t Republican and Democratic victims, just victims. They matter. And they should be heard,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said during the press conference. 

As Breitbart News reported:

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd emphasized that police simply want to enforce the law, noting that he has spoken to sheriffs from the “largest jurisdictions in the entire nation” including the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office. 

“And you know what they tell me? They tell me we got a dumpster fire going on in this nation. And you know, who’s getting burned by this dumpster fire, the working people,” he said, naming issues in areas such as New Orleans, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Chicago, and Portland. 

“So what’s the commonality here? Just go look for yourself. Look at the data. The murders are up. Innocent people are being murdered where prosecutors don’t do their job,” he said. 

“We took an oath to tell the truth to uphold the Constitution and to support the laws in the government,” Grady added. “And we do that and we’re led by the greatest governor in the United States of America.”