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MISSION STATEMENT |
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Updated
March 2010 |
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"Beware the fury of a patient man"- Poet, John Dryden
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
The rationale behind the development of this website is to primarily inform both the general public and the staff of the Volusia County Department of Public Protection of some of the events that have transpired within VCDPP over the past 20 years.
The VCDPP encompasses several divisions, to include the county jail, fire services, beach safety, emergency medical services, medical examiner, emergency management and animal control. VCDPP is a rather large department that, in some way, affects each citizen of Volusia County. Realizing the importance of this department in the health and safety of the Volusia County public, it is paramount that we be able to trust these public servants to act within acceptable community and professional standards.
This site was developed to make public documents readily available to the citizens of Volusia County, so that they can, as individuals, judge for themselves whether our public safety officials are following and maintaining acceptable standards. Should any of our readers have concerns, then this site will provide the proper resources and contact information that will assist them in contacting their local elected or investigative officials to properly address their individual concern(s).
In time, this site will present documents from every division of the VCDPP, for now we will be focusing our efforts on the Divisions of Corrections, Fire Services, Beach Safety and the Medical Examiner. Further, this site will present documents from outside agencies / sources that provide support / assistance to the operation of these VCDPP divisions.
The development of this site was NOT to place any particular public safety employee in a negative light. The opposite is true. Public safety employees are some the most overworked and unappreciated men and women in public service.
Public safety employees are human beings and therefore on a regular basis they do make mistakes. This website will not condemn or make opportunistic folly of these mistakes. Rather this website will ask the reader to judge whether the administration and management of the VCDPP appropriately handled these incidents?
The website will also ask the reader to explore whether all county jails in Florida need stricter oversight. Prior to October 1, 1996 all Florida jails were monitored by the strict standards of Florida Administrative Code 33.8. Under these strict standards the jails were inspected bi-annually by an impartial Florida State Prison Inspector. These inspectors investigated medical concerns of inmates and ALL in custody deaths, among other things. These inspections were mandatory for all Florida Jails and violations of these 33.8 standards subjected the jail administrators to serious sanctions.
Since the October 1996 repeal of F.A.C. 33.8, the Florida Sheriff's Association has been the inspecting body of Florida Jails. The Florida Sheriff Association developed standards under the title of the Florida Model Jail Standards. In the opinion of many, these FMJ Standards severely reduce jail standards to the point of peril to human well being. Further, these standards are NOT mandatory and several Florida Jails refuse to be inspected by the FMJS and many jails that do participate in the inspections, have chosen to knowingly ignore important standards of the FMJS.
Why is this important? Because lives are endangered and your tax dollars are being spent haphazardly on lawsuits that probably would have never materialized under the FAC 33-8 jail inspection standards.