DeSantis said Hope Florida experts are in every sheriff's office. Are they?
More than a dozen sheriff’s offices said there are no trained experts at their agencies.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and first lady Casey DeSantis led a news conference in Tallahassee on April 1 to announce that trained Hope Florida liaisons were in every sheriff’s office.
The DeSantises, flanked by uniformed sheriffs and deputies in the state Capitol, touted the liaisons as dedicated conduits between the program and law enforcement. The governor said each one “serves as a trained expert in Hope Florida” who can educate others “on the philosophy and functions” of the first lady’s signature initiative.
“To have cooperation from all 67 counties across the state of Florida is really special,” Casey DeSantis told reporters.
But thirteen sheriff’s offices — including some of Florida’s largest agencies — told the Tampa Bay Times that they have no such experts. When asked about their work with Hope Florida, the agencies said they’d had little interaction beyond providing a contact name after they were asked to do so by the Florida Sheriff’s Association.
“We’re not actively engaged in anything with Hope Florida,” Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said when asked last week.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/05/02/desantis-hope-florida-casey-sheriff-liaisons/