Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons opened 2026 with a positive announcement, one that should please residents concerned about public safety: the number of homicides fell last year from 32 to 18, a drop that Simmons calls “probably the biggest drop in homicide numbers that we’ve had in recent memory.”
The Numbers Tell a Positive Story
The 40% reduction in homicides represents just part of the good news. Violent crime overall decreased by 13 to 15% throughout the county.
- “We owe it to ourselves, and I owe it to the voters to do the very best that we possibly can,” Simmons said during a recent podcast interview, explaining his year-end assessment process with command staff.
While acknowledging that “some of that is luck,” Simmons insisted that his command staff examine multiple factors behind crime trends, including personnel increases, philosophical changes, technology improvements, and policy adjustments.
“I read a lot about successful business people, and I think it was Jack Welch used to run General Electric. And when he took over, he assessed everything. And his favorite thing is we’re not going to invest in losers anymore,” he said. “If an operation isn’t working, or in their case, making money, we’re going to get rid of it. And if it’s not doing a certain level, then we’re going to prove it.”
- The sheriff continued, “So I had a meeting as early as this morning and talked to my command staff and said, ‘Just because we think things are going well doesn’t mean that we can’t do a little bit better.’”
Technology as a Game-Changer
The Real-Time Crime Center continues expanding its capabilities, particularly through license plate reader technology. Simmons described a recent homicide case that showed the system’s power.
“We had a situation where we had basically no evidence. There was a body with a gunshot wound to the head,” Simmons explained. Detectives canvassed the neighborhood not just for witnesses, but for security cameras. They identified a white Ford Bronco, tracked it to a liquor store an hour before the murder, and placed it at the crime scene.
“We were able to solve a homicide that 10 years ago we would never have been able to solve, certainly not in such a short period of time,” Simmons said.
Drones: A Controversial but Effective Tool
Despite recent opposition from some gubernatorial candidates, Simmons defended the sheriff’s office drone program as essential modern policing.
“I don’t understand ignoring technology,” Simmons said, clarifying that his office doesn’t patrol with drones or monitor people’s backyards. Instead, they deploy drones to establish perimeters during searches or when looking for missing persons.
The drones’ forward-looking infrared (FLIR) capabilities allow deputies to see heat signatures of suspects within one or two-block radius, particularly in wooded areas. Simmons stressed, “We’re not talking about shoplifting. We’re talking about robberies. We’re talking about felons.”
Open Carry: A Non-Issue So Far
The recent court case that made the open carry of firearms legal in Florida hasn’t created problems locally, according to Simmons.
- “We saw more changes with regards to the law when they passed what they call constitutional carry. Anyone could carry without a concealed carry permit,” he said. “But right now, we haven’t had any complaints about people walking around with open firearms,”
While supporting constitutional carry rights, he noted that residents seem to exercise common sense about when and where they carry firearms openly.
- “I would hope that people would keep that in mind, that people would certainly exercise their constitutional rights, but also have a level of common sense,” Simmons said.
Congress directed use of a specific crime reporting system called “Uniform Crime Reports” or “UCR” up until 2020. UCR didn’t describe the total crime problem in a community in part because it only counted certain crimes and did so in a very specific, and very odd way. Escambia County has ten law enforcement jurisdictions for the purpose of reporting crime statistics to include UWF and PSC, etc. The real value of the UCR system (“U” = Uniform) is that the same methodology was used in all law enforcement jurisdictions. The only “hanky-panky” issue is deliberate suppression of crime reporting. I’ve been told of it and seen it done myself. In 2021, I reviewed crime stats from 1995 to 2020. Crime in the city (Pensacola) was below the state level until the city shifted to an elected mayor. It then spiked. The city’s crime rate stayed about the county crime rate every year through 2020. Generally, the city crime rate was more than three times the crime rate in Santa Rosa County. People and PPD Officers too vote with their feet moving to Santa Rosa County because of low crime, low taxes and good schools. Starting in 2021, the new system is called “National Incident-Based Reporting System” or “NIBRS.” In Florida, FDLE calls it the “Florida Incident-Based Report Reporting System (FIBRS).” One the Pensacola side, I’m aware of five specific crimes committed in Eastgate Park across from my house in 2024. I witnessed and reported three. No one contacted me. No effort was made to find shell casings from two shootings. I had to find the seven total shell casings and tell PPD to come get them. One PPD response involving teenager shooting up the park with a BB rifle was so unimportant it took PPD 33 minutes to respond. I suspect a hallmark of the Reeves Administration is that suppression of crime reporting has been taken to a new level. No other way to explain the claim of the city having the fourth lowest crime rate in the national. Pure fantasy. As for the Sheriff, records now posted online to the FDLE website appear to describe that the Escambia County Sheriff ‘s Office has not submitted full data to FIBRS. True? One record posted online does suggest that the Sheriff did provide 96 days worth of data in 2021. Perhaps Inweekly could look into the matter and tell us the facts.