Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The Florida Sheriff’s Association Conference was held this week.
Ramsay said, “I went up Sunday and just came back yesterday afternoon. So I was in Jacksonville, Florida, which had a cold front going through there. It’s been pretty brisk in North Florida. They’re not used to that. I think nighttime was around 30, and daytime was in the 50s. So it was windy. So the wind chill factor really cut into you. We’ve continued every year I’ve been the sheriff to see reductions in crime to the point now that we’re at a record low levels of crime. The last few years, every year we set new record for the low levels of crime we have per capita. We keep saying this is one of the safest places ever to live, work and play, and this is a tribute to several factors. First and foremost, clearly, is the hard working men and women of Monroe County Sheriff’s Office out there doing difficult, challenging jobs each and every day. Second, I always tell you and your listeners, is amazing, strong partnerships I have on my state, local, federal, military partners all working together to combat crime and focus on safe communities. And third, and one of the most important parts is the community relationships we have, I always tell you and your listeners, I consider the citizens of Monroe an extension of the sheriff’s office, because we work so closely with them that they’re the first ones who are going to call us to tell us who did it, or what’s going to happen, or who’s going to do it. If we need help on something, they’re going to call and give us tips. They’re just outstanding partners to the sheriff and we’re all working on the same goal. We all want the same thing. You all want safe communities. We want to be able to go out and walk and play, and kids to ride their bikes, and kids to be able to play in this community. So we all have the same goals, objectives together, and we’re all working, rowing in the same direction, and that cooperation that continues internal, external, it’s so critical to have what we’re having, record low levels of crime, reductions in crime. So crime is always going to exist, but we’re surely sitting at the amazing low levels.”
Two men broke into the Florida Keys Aquarium and were caught fishing in a private lagoon last year.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This case happened last year. This is like May of ‘25, so, yes, we had two individuals, one from Fort Myers and the other from Marathon area, who were at nighttime, went to the aquarium with fishing gear and were fishing in the ponds. This is so sad. These fish have nowhere to go. They’re used to being fed. They were in there at nighttime thinking it’s funny, they catch a tarpon, they pull it out. They’re taking pictures of it. Ultimately, the tarpon died, and we got called, and we had to investigate this, which was a little tricky, trying to identify at nighttime, two guys on camera fishing in this area, but we were able to identify two people. One was from Fort Myers. One was local, one was 25, one was a 20 year old male. We did arrest one individual a couple months ago, back in November, and then we’ve since located the other individual on the west coast of Florida and arrested him now. So both have been arrested for burglary and these related charges. But it’s unusual and stupid and silly. It was just sad to see. But again, some good closure then continues to show that we’re vigilant and will not tolerate this stuff occurring.”
A recent traffic stop resulted in an arrest for possession of more than four pounds of marijuana and 10 THC vape pens.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We continue to focus on traffic stops being so important to us. And what happens on these traffic stops, we keep saying that people are using cars to commit crimes every day. So it does help us to identify these type of things. This is a 40 year old woman out of Marathon who was arrested back in January 27 on this traffic stop. Vigilant officers, you stop, you smell the strong odor, something’s going on. This is about the 62 mile marker, and in the late afternoon. And eventually, we did find larger drugs, as you indicated, that were more than just personal use. These amount of drugs, you’re talking four plus pounds of marijuana, and then a large amount of the THC, vape pens and drug paraphernalia that clearly this person is not a personal use. This is a drug dealer that is just trying to deal drugs in our communities, a threat, hazard to the safety, well being of our citizens that we’re just not going to tolerate. So good to deal with traffic related issues, and good to have results of getting some drugs and a drug dealer off the streets and trying to hold them accountable and keep trying to prevent this from occurring, and keep reassuring our citizens that we’re on the job.”
A highly intoxicated man was found unconscious in Marathon in the roadway near a bar. He woke up, and apparently, started kicking and punching at deputies, and tried to headbutt one.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This was a person who was found unconscious behind the wheel of a car at about 61st Street. He had actually crashed into another vehicle, and the person was drunk, passed out, crashed into a car, didn’t wake up, was unresponsive to how intoxicated this person was, a 54 year old male out of Marathon. We were called there, so we weren’t sure initially, what this was. This is about 9pm, we’re not sure if this is a medical emergency. We soon figure out, no, this is just an extremely intoxicated person who crashed his car into another vehicle and didn’t even realize it, passed out and just continued sleeping. We got there first thing trying to wake this person up to see if this is a medical emergency. Once we get the person up and the person became extremely violent at officers, punching, attacking at officers. So this was a melee occurring, unfortunately, at this point in time, yelling and screaming, cursing, saying he was going to fight the sheriff’s office members and was throwing punches, and could barely walk, refused to cooperate. We had to force this guy into the patrol car at the end. Had to take him to the hospital to get him medically cleared. While in the car, he was banging his head in the cage of the car to the point that he had lacerations and bruising in his forehead, was bleeding, which forced us to take them to hospital to get him checked out, cleared, to go to the jail. The booking photo was pretty clear about this guy, he hit the cage, so many times his forehead was extremely bloody, so you look at the booking folder like, holy crap, what happened to this guy? But most of this, some was from the car crash, but mostly it was from him just banging his head because he was so drunk and stupid. But this is the guy who was driving a car in the road. We’re lucky he didn’t kill somebody, lucky it was a parked car versus a car in motion.”
The next citizens police academy is coming up in April.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “These community policing classes put on for our citizen police academies, are just that extension of our community policing programs. These classes, we make it fun, action, adrenaline, excitement, hands on. Meet some really good people in the class, some really good men and women in the sheriff’s office. You better understand how this full service agency operates, how much we really do. You leave there making a lot of new friends, and it is a fun class. Everyone who has gone through was raving about this. We make it the best it can be. It’s one day a week, just from six to 10. So it’s not time consuming, necessarily. And we do it in three parts of the county, so everyone in different parts of the county all have an opportunity to take this class, not have to drive from one end to the other end. So we do it Tuesday night in the Lower Keys. Wednesday night there’s a class for the Middle Keys, and Thursday night there’s a class for the Upper Keys. So if you have interest, you can contact your local division captain or lieutenant, and we’ll get you hooked up. And we’d love to have you part of the team.”