{"id":60691,"date":"2026-01-05T19:58:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=60691"},"modified":"2026-01-05T20:27:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:27:05","slug":"polk-county-sheriffs-office-is-expanding-its-footprint-as-the-county-experiences-explosive-growth-in-the-northeast-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/01\/05\/polk-county-sheriffs-office-is-expanding-its-footprint-as-the-county-experiences-explosive-growth-in-the-northeast-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office is expanding its footprint as the county experiences explosive growth in the northeast region"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Edwin Perez moved to Haines City in 2022. He is one of the 145,000 people who have moved to Polk County in the last six years.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"918c81\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #918c81;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/download-3.webp?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60692 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/download-3.webp?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/download-3.webp?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/download-3.webp?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/download-3.webp?w=1221&amp;ssl=1 1221w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe growth is a great thing, but what I\u2019ve noticed is that the supplies of roads, schools, of police presence are taking a backseat,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the fastest growth happening in the northeast area of the county, the sheriff\u2019s office has just opened its new Ridge District Office in Poinciana. It is the agency\u2019s sixth district station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCounty leaders and the sheriff\u2019s team of experts considered a variety of factors when deciding to build a station. They look for growth in a particular area, deputies&#8217; response time, equipment that\u2019s needed, the size of the facility, especially as it relates to future growth and the needs of the residence and the businesses in this area,\u201d said Polk County Commissioner Martha Santiago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=476&#038;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Freel%2F2299088270555157%2F&#038;show_text=false&#038;width=267&#038;t=0\" width=\"267\" height=\"476\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowFullScreen=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new facility on Marigold Avenue will provide law enforcement, patrol, and investigative services to the unincorporated areas of Poinciana, Davenport, Haines City, Lake Hamilton, and Dundee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This covers a population of about 136,000 people. Authorities said the district already accounts for nearly 18 percent of all sheriff\u2019s office calls for service countywide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe emergency services are the same because the deputies were allocated here. But if you need to do follow-up work with the sheriff\u2019s office or with a detective or with some of the command staff, now it\u2019s in your neighborhood. As before, we may have to ask you to drive 30 or 45 minutes,\u201d said Grady Judd, Polk County Sheriff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Judd said while Polk County is experiencing a historically low crime rate, expanding the force is needed because of the county\u2019s explosive growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCounty commissioners have allocated over 130 deputies, and a portion of them certainly will be assigned here,\u201d said Judd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The County and Sheriff\u2019s Office are working together to keep crime low and quality of life high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think that\u2019s great. A great step in the right direction with taking steps that are needed,\u201d said Perez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new Ridge District Office will also have a community room available for unrestricted use for meetings, gatherings, and events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Edwin Perez moved to Haines City in 2022. He is one of the 145,000 people who have moved to Polk County in the last six years. \u201cThe growth is a&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"23","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDFcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTMud2VicD9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzU3NiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgQ291bnR5IFNoZXJpZmZcdTIwMTlzIE9mZmljZSBpcyBleHBhbmRpbmcgaXRzIGZvb3RwcmludCBhcyB0aGUgY291bnR5IGV4cGVyaWVuY2VzIGV4cGxvc2l2ZSBncm93dGggaW4gdGhlIG5vcnRoZWFzdCByZWdpb24iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.kyeOY-ZbjgDz-g9a6jZ8sUYk03VMaEGw9TTrPDSyjqUMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":60692,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/download-3.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[13107],"class_list":["post-60691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sheriffs-corner","tag-polk-county-sheriffs-office-is-expanding-its-footprint-as-the-county-experiences-explosive-growth-in-the-northeast-region"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60691"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60698,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60691\/revisions\/60698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}