SHERIFF RICK STALY

Dear Flagler County Residents and Visitors,

In 2015 you asked me to run for Sheriff and in 2016 you elected me to serve as your Sheriff and restore community trust in your Sheriff’s Office. When you elected me, I promised to restore the Sheriff’s Office to a professional, well-respected law enforcement Agency that you could be proud of; to reduce crime and drugs; to focus on youthful offenders; and, to offer inmates at the county jail programs that would allow them to become productive members of our community. I made these promises to you in 2016 and I delivered!

Today, your Sheriff’s Office is a modern award-winning law enforcement Agency recognized as a leader in professional law enforcement. In partnership with you and the community along with an amazing dedicated team serving you every day we have reduced crime by over 50% despite being the 3rd fastest growing county in Florida. The Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility is now an accredited and award-winning jail. Inmate programs offer job skills, mental health and addiction treatment so that inmates have the opportunity to be productive citizens when released. Our Law Enforcement Division now has modern and updated equipment and state-of-the-art technology to serve you efficiently and to effectively catch criminals that prey on our community and put them in jail where they belong! Our drug enforcement dismantled a Drug Trafficking Organization that took us all the way to a Mexican Cartel and we have seized millions of dollars in illegal narcotics and seized enough fentanyl to potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people. And, because we investigate every overdose death as a homicide a number of poison peddlers are in state prison for selling the fatal dose. And, neighborhood drug houses are now closed for business.

In 2020, you overwhelmingly voted to keep me your Sheriff and in 2024, I was re-elected unopposed; only the 2^nd time in the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office history this has occurred. Thank you for your continued confidence in my leadership.

It is my honor to serve you and your family.

Best regards

Rick Staly

Sheriff

This is the personal website of Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly. If you need the official Flagler County Sheriff’s Office website, visit www.flaglersheriff.com

Sheriff Rick Staly is serving his third 4-year term as Flagler County Sheriff. He was first elected to the office of Sheriff in 2016 and was sworn in as the 18th Sheriff of Flagler County on January 3, 2017. Following his first term, he was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2020. Following his second term, he was re-elected unopposed in 2024, joining Sheriff Zip Edmonson in 1968 as the only incumbent Sheriff in Flagler County history to be re-elected unopposed.

Sheriff Staly holds a master’s degree in Justice Administration from the University of Louisville and a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Rollins College. Sheriff Staly is a graduate of the 177th Session of the FBI National Academy, the 79th Session of the FBI FEDS Program, and the Southern Police Institute’s 79th Administrative Officer’s Course. He is also a graduate of the 112th Session of the National Sheriff’s Institute, and Session 2 of NSI’s Jail Administration, making him the first Sheriff in Flagler County to graduate from the NSI.

Sheriff Staly previously served as president of the Florida Deputy Sheriffs Association. During his tenure as president, he led FDSA during its fastest membership growth period, making FDSA the largest Deputy Sheriffs Association in the United States. He has served as board chair of the Florida Sheriffs Association and is currently an FSA officer and will be sworn-in as FSA President in 2027, making him the first Flagler County Sheriff to serve as FSA President.

Sheriff Staly is past board chair of the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches. He previously served as board chair of the Florida Commission on Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation, where he served a 6-year appointment. In 2023, Sheriff Staly was appointed by the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture to the Florida Private Investigation, Recovery and Security Advisory Council as the law enforcement representative member. Sheriff Staly also serves as chairman of the Flagler County Public Safety Coordinating Council.

Sheriff Staly has been awarded lifetime memberships in the National Sheriffs’ Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Southern Police Institute Alumni Association, Florida Sheriffs Association, FBI National Academy Associates, and the Florida Police Chiefs Association. He is also a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Sheriff Staly is an active member in the local community. He is on the Board of Directors for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties. He is Past President of the Rotary Club of Flagler County and of Crimestoppers of Northeast Florida. He is also a member of the Volusia-Flagler Police Chiefs Association, the B.P.O.E. Elks of Palm Coast, Bunnell Lodge No. 200 F&AM, and the Flagler County Gun and Archery Club.

Sheriff Staly and his wife, Debbie, are members of Flagler Beach United Methodist Church and live in Bunnell. Sheriff Staly has two grown daughters, Lauren and Diana, and three grandchildren, Aiden, Lexi, and Adalynn.

LAW ENFORCEMENT CAREER

Sheriff Staly began his law enforcement career in 1975 as a police officer in the City of Oviedo, Florida and later in the City of Altamonte Springs, Florida. In 1977, Sheriff Staly joined the Orange County Sheriff’s Office as a Deputy Sheriff. Through the next 23 years, he was promoted through the ranks ultimately serving as Undersheriff, or second-in-command, of the 4th largest law enforcement agency in Florida and the 13th largest Sheriff’s Office in the nation. As Orange County Undersheriff, he commanded 2,000 employees and managed a $120m budget. Sheriff Staly retired from the public sector in 2001, but remained a sworn reserve Deputy Sheriff with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.

After a brief retirement, Sheriff Staly worked in the private security industry as a Senior Vice President for an international developer where he was responsible for security operations in five states and the Bahamas. He moved to Flagler County in 2005 and started his own security business based in Palm Coast, Florida in 2008. After he and his wife, Debbie, grew the company to 128 employees with an annual revenue of $3.5 million dollars, they sold the company to a national security firm and he looked to return to public service.

During Sheriff Staly’s decades long career of public service, he has received numerous awards, commendations, and medals. While serving the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, he received the agency Medal of Valor, agency Purple Heart Medal, and Florida Governor’s Medal of Heroism after being shot three times while saving the life of a deputy sheriff. In 2015, he was awarded the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award from President Obama. In 2019, Sheriff Staly was selected as one of five finalists for the NRA’s Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award.

In 2013, he joined the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office where he served as Undersheriff for two years. Sheriff Staly was asked by the community to run for Sheriff in 2015. In 2016, he was elected as the 18th Sheriff of Flagler County, overwhelmingly re-elected in 2020, and re-elected unopposed in 2024.

Sheriff Staly is recognized as ushering the agency into a modern and professional law enforcement agency for the 21st century. Under Sheriff Staly, the agency motto is “An Honor to Serve, A Duty to Protect” and Sheriff Staly believed no crime was acceptable and the Sheriff’s Office mission was to reduce crime. Under Sheriff Staly’s leadership, the agency received many state, national and international awards. A new operations center was built and all agency specialty vehicles were replaced with new and modern equipment.