Orlando, Florida, Welcomes First Female Chief of Police, Val Butler Demings

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer appointed Val Demings Orlando's first female chief Of police following former Police Chief Michael McCoy's retirement. Not only is Demings courageous, smart and beautiful, but she is also African American.

Demings is not the first African American chief of police in Orlando. That position was first taken up by her husband, Jerry Demings, in 1998. (He served the post through 2002.) He is currently serving as public safety director and will be leaving that position to run for sheriff. Imagine if he won. Val and her husband would be running the two biggest police agencies in the region.

Val has been on the force for 23 years and has served the last two years as Deputy Chief. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Criminology from Florida State and has a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Webster University. Val also graduated from the FBI National Academy Program at Quantico, Virginia. She has been in command of almost every division in the past so, she has the experience needed to get the job done. Val has done her part in the bicycle division and even lead the air patrol division during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. She will now be leading over 1,000 employees in her fight against violent crime in the city of Orlando.

Val Butler Demings is 50 years old. She was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Her mother worked as a maid and her father did home repair for a living. I have done both of these types of jobs in my life time and I can report first hand that both are hard work and neither pays very well. She said in her acceptance speech that growing up with her parents she learned to look beyond present circumstances and to look for a better day. She also challenged the citizens of Orlando during this speech to "make a difference whenever and however you can". She closed her speech with "God be to Glory".

Since taking office in January, she has already made a difference. The undercover drug unit had only made 83 arrests last year compared to 716 drug arrests made by the uniformed drug squad. Val decided that it only made since to cancel the undercover program and put those officers back in uniform to create a second uniformed drug squad in order to put more pressure on street level crime and drug dealing. Val is also pushing for more community policing in order to dramatically reduce violent crime.

Hats off to you, Val Demings. Congratulations on your new position and I wish you the best of luck cleaning up crime in Orlando.

Girl Gone Fishing

Sources include the following:
http://www.cityoforlando.net/executive/Communications/news/06_01_13_opd2.htm

http://www.cityoforlando.net/elected/mayor/pressreleases/07_11_27_valdemings.htm

http://www.cfnews13.com/Features/BlackHistory/2008/1/31/val_demings.html

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/orl-val1108jan11,0,1017564.story

www.foxreno.com/station/10889868/detail.html