In a statement released by the Gillum campaign and picked up by the Tampa Bay Times, McNeil said, “Under Mayor Andrew Gillum’s leadership, violent crime is down 24 percent, and overall crime is down 10 percent with crime at a five-year low in Tallahassee. Mayor Gillum’s investments into more police officers, restorative justice, and community policing have made Tallahassee safer than when he became Mayor, period.”

However, during an appearance on the The Morning Show with Preston Scott, Scott asked if McNeil’s comments regarding his assessment of Gillum’s action should have included the qualifier “since you have been sheriff?”

McNeil responded by saying, “Perhaps you are right. The caveat should have been this is my perspective since I have been Sheriff.”

McNeil was elected in 2016, which means his comments would be relevant for just less than two years.

Ironically, during his campaign in 2016, McNeil made a campaign issue out of Leon County’s high crime rate and ran a dramatic television ad which showed a model home getting blown away by an apparent shotgun blast.

Also, in a press conference addressing the crime rate on June 7, 2016 – while Gillum was mayor -McNeil said, “I do not see the outrage, the efforts, or a plan to address the issue. No one seems concerned.”

Public records show that Gillum and the Tallahassee City Commission ignored pleas for help from law enforcement officials from 2009 through 2013.

The Florida legislature passed a new law on May 5 requiring law enforcement to undergo 40 hours of training on recognizing and appropriately responding to individuals with autism. This legislation follows a 2016 incident in South Florida in which a therapist was shot by law enforcement while trying to protect an autistic client.

Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil and Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo discussed the challenges facing law enforcement at a recent Network of Entrepreneurs and Business Advocates (NEBA) meeting. Both were clearly concerned about the ever-increasing responsibilities placed on police officers/deputies when responding to stressful situations.

“Why are we the first to go? Why?” McNeil asked. “We have EMS, they’re trained for medical situations. When there is a fire, they call the fire department and law enforcement goes as back up. We have a mental health situation, why can’t we send a mental health provider with law enforcement as backup?”

“We’re expected to do everything’” he complained. “For mental health situations they call the Leon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) or they call Tallahassee Police Department (TPD). We go to a house because a guy won’t take his medications. The guy’s not mentally hisself anyway, so we get there and what happens? By just us showing up the situation escalates.  When someone slaps one of my deputies up side the head, he’s committed a felony and is going to jail. If a mental health provider had responded, this might have been avoided.”

DeLeo explained,”No, we are not the best intervention for a lot of these social issues but the reality is that in many cases, we’re the only intervention. We’re the only ones that are open 24/7, 365 days a year. We’ve talked with mental health workers about responding with us. ‘You mean come out after 5 o’clock? on the weekend?’ We talk about wanting to make it better, but that’s gonna take a change in our business model, for everybody.”

DeLeo explained what he called “ unrealistic expectations” put on local law enforcement and the burden of that responsibility.

He said, “We talk about crisis intervention and LCSO and TPD have large numbers of our officers trained in crisis intervention. It’s additional schooling above and beyond regular schooling. Every year we send more and more officers for that training. But the truth is the uniform is not the most inviting or calming.”

“When people call us, they are in crisis. They don’t know who else to call. The only way for us to start that referral process is for us to show up. And sometimes, with our presence, we don’t make it better,” he said.

“Everybody mandates special training (for law enforcement) for the things that medical doctors and psychiatrists and psychologists go to school for years for,” DeLeo said. “It takes multiple visits to the doctor’s office and diagnostic testing, so they can diagnose somebody. The expectation is that one of our officers/deputies is gonna show up on a scene and within 15 seconds diagnose someone and treat them appropriately. That’s what you are asking for. And it’s not just autism, its any other medical condition somebody might have, from diabetes to other mental health issues.”

“That’s the burden you are placing on these men and women,” DeLeo said.

“It’s a very difficult situation and we really need to be looking for the alternative organizations that should be intervening prior to, or who we can partner with,” DeLeo said.

DeLeo called the new law “feel good legislation” and said it does not really help the families who already have a very difficult struggle with their children or their adult children.

“We are creating an expectation that because an officer went to a four-hour class, it’s gonna make it all better. We haven’t addressed the issue. We’ve dressed it up and put some wrapping on it, but we need to find who is the best group of people with the right skill set to see it coming and intervene appropriately with law enforcement in a supporting role. That’s what we should be doing,” he concluded.

McNeil brushed off suggestions longstanding ties with Gillum — through McNeil’s previous position as Tallahassee Police Department Chief of Police and through McNeil and Gillum’s mutual association with political advisor Sean Pittman during the last election — will affect the Sheriff’s Office’s investigation of Gillum.

“I think for the most part, the media is gonna make this a no-win situation and we understand that. We will be criticized,” McNeil said.

He continued, “I have no concern about the mayor or anyone else. The folks of Leon County elected me to do the job of sheriff and that’s precisely what I plan to do.”

“My department has investigated numerous people. I don’t do the investigation myself,” he explained.

McNeil said Beasley is overseeing the investigation.

Beasley, controversial is his own right, was hired on Jan. 3 by McNeil. Beasley is the former Florida Department of Corrections inspector general accused of covering up and thwarting investigations into human rights abuses in the Florida prison system.  He and others in his office were accused of failing to investigate and even derailing some cases involving the abuse of inmates.

McNeil said it is Beasley who will assign an investigator to the Gillum case.

Indicating complete confidence in his investigative team, McNeil was emphatic it would run a thorough investigation in which he would not interfere.

“It will go to an investigator. I have no idea who that investigator will be. Any investigator assigned to this will have the background in these kinds of cases and he or she will do their job. They will, if need be, confer with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, relative to any issues of computers, science and technology, like we always do. That investigation will carry on, and, like murder cases and other cases, I don’t personally oversee those cases. I don’t personally get involved in those,” he said.

He further explained that there are “checks and balances” between the Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s office. He said when the investigator completes his or her investigation, the findings will be sent to the State Attorney’s office. If there are questions, the State Attorney can send them back to the investigator.

“There’ll be discussions back and forth about the evidence and the course of the investigation,” McNeil said, “and all of that will occur without my having anything to do with it whatsoever.”

“I’m just gonna do my job. My investigators will do a great job. This case will be processed the same way as any other case,” McNeil said.

On February 23, Tallahassee Reports broke the story that Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum had allegedly spent approximately $5,000 in city funds to purchase software from democrat campaign vendor, NGP VAN. That software was allegedly used in campaign emails for Gillum in which he mixed “Office of the Mayor” letterhead with his campaign correspondence.

An investigation was launched March 8 by State Attorney Jack Campbell after receipt of a complaint letter from a retired Jefferson County law enforcement officer and investigator.