By Gary Nager
No matter what your politics may be, it’s hard not to like Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco. Tall, handsome (at least according to the ladies in my Wesley Chapel Rotary Club, where he was the featured speaker on January 7), married and a father of three who stays active in his church and his community, Sheriff Nocco is extremely qualified (see credentials below) and very comfortable holding a microphone.
The Pasco Sheriff gave yours truly and my fellow Wesley Chapel Rotarians (we meet every Wed. at noon at Ciao! Italian Bistro in the Shops at Wiregrass mall) an update on his office and the state of law enforcement in Pasco County.
According to his bio at PascoSheriff.us, Sheriff Nocco, who has held that position since 2011, graduated with a Master’s degree in Public Administration and a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, both from the University of Delaware in Newark, where he also played football. He also earned an undergraduate certificate in Emergency Management from Florida State University in Tallahassee, is a graduate of the National Sheriff’s Association’s 101st National Sheriff’s Institute and a graduate of the FBI’s National Executive Institute.
Before coming to Pasco, Sheriff Nocco served with the Philadelphia Public School Police, the Fairfax County Virginia Police Department and as a deputy with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. He was a first responder to the attacks of 9/11, the Washington Sniper Incident, the anthrax attacks and numerous demonstrations and large protests in the nation’s capital. He also served as a member of the Civil Disturbance Unit in Fairfax, the Field Force in Broward County and as Staff Director to Rep. Marco Rubio in the Policy & Procedures Office (responsible for domestic security, criminal justice, economic development, and transportation issues). He then became Deputy Chief of Staff when Rubio became the Speaker of the Florida House. Nocco also was Chief of Staff for the Florida Highway Patrol, assisting with the reorganization creating greater efficiencies, cost savings, and information sharing, and served both as Captain and Major of the Joint Operations Bureau of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) before being appointed Sheriff in 2011.
In other words, Sheriff Nocco is indeed well-qualified to be the top law enforcement official in our county, and he certainly has no problem being honest about his needs as Sheriff. For example, although his budget for the Sheriff’s Office has increased every year since 2012 (from $83.5 million in 2012 to a $98.5 million budget allocation for Fiscal Year 2015), he told the Rotarians in attendance that he still has an average of only 0.8 deputies per 1,000 residents, even though the national average for a law enforcement agency is about two officers for every 1,000 people (and the City of Tampa budgets about three officers for every 1,000 people).
“Pasco may be the weirdest county in Florida (according to a 2014 Slate magazine article),” Nocco said at the Rotary meeting, “but it’s my job to make sure that the laws are enforced and the residents are kept safe.”
Towards that end, Nocco said that, thanks to a federal grant, all PCSO deputies are now equipped with body cameras they can turn on and off, which he says helps keep both the officers and any innocent people safe during the investigation of any possible crime. “It’s a safety measure for both the citizens and for law enforcement,” he said.
Speaking of public safety, Nocco also said that it is a known fact that if anything were to happen in Pasco County similar to the recent events in Paris, “the response of the U.S. military to have an actual presence in our area could take days, so our deputies know that they will be responsible for protecting the people of this county in the event of a major incident.” He added that he wasn’t letting secret information out of the bag with those comments, “Those are just the facts we face every day on this job.”
During the Rotary meeting, Sheriff Nocco also introduced Cpl. Mary Guyer, and District II (which includes Wesley Chapel) Capt. Ken Gregory. Guyer, who began her career at the PCSO in 2006 as a patrol deputy. In 2011, she was appointed to the rank of corporal and was assigned to the grant-funded position of Officer Friendly in Dade City, working with at-risk children. In 2013, Cpl. Guyer began working in the Community Relations Unit. Capt. And, since joining PCSO way back in 1990, Capt. Gregory was one of the initial members of the Community Oriented Policing Unit. He also has worked in the Vice & Narcotics unit and in Property Crimes and the Motor and Step Units.
My thanks to Sheriff Nocco and his staff for their ongoing job well done!
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