Sheriff will not allow ‘criminal element’ into evacuation shelters during Hurricane Milton
A Florida sheriff went viral on X for declaring that criminals with outstanding warrants would be arrested at the entryway of Hurricane Milton evacuation shelters and sent to the county jail for immediate processing.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly announced during a briefing that he has no tolerance for relaxing law enforcement’s activities against the “criminal element,” even during a hurricane.
“Anyone that comes in will be checked to make sure they’re not a fugitive and not a sex offender,” he said at the briefing. “If you are a predator, you are not allowed in the [sic] shelter. If you are a designated a sex predator in a court of law, you’ll need to go to… the county jail,” he said.
He explained in an interview with Fox News Digital that people with outstanding warrants will be arrested at the evacuation shelter. Sex predators, even if they do not have outstanding warrants, should go directly to the county jail, where they will be housed behind bars, until after the storm.
“We want to be able to ensure that there’s a safe environment, whether it’s children with their parents, senior citizens, whoever, that we’re not co-mingling them with inappropriate people. When it comes to sex predators, they are not allowed in our shelters that are open to the general public so they can go to our county jail and we will put them up in the fire of the jail. And when the storm is over, we’ll unlock the door and push them out the door.”
Florida sheriffs are known for their no-nonsense attitudes, particularly when it comes to criminals.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson encourages citizens to shoot to kill home invaders to save taxpayer money.
“If someone is breaking into your house, you’re more than welcome to shoot. We prefer you to do that, actually,” he said in 2022.
“If somebody gets killed during a home invasion, the odds of them re-offending are zero. And we like those odds.” he said.