Opinion By Guest Columnist and Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons
(Originally published in the Pensacola News Journal on October 1, 2026)
For more than four decades, I have had the privilege of serving in law enforcement. During that time, I have learned that keeping a community safe takes good people, good planning, and the right tools to do the job.
At the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, our greatest investment will always be in our people. But those men and women also need reliable vehicles, modern technology, dependable communications, quality training facilities, and the equipment necessary to safely and effectively serve our community.
That is where the Local Option Sales Tax has made a tremendous difference.
For more than 30 years, Escambia County voters have chosen to invest a penny of local sales tax into the infrastructure and capital needs of this community. For the Sheriff’s Office, those dollars have allowed us to make major investments in public safety without taking those resources away from the budget that pays for the people providing those services every day.
LOST has helped us replace patrol vehicles on a responsible schedule. It has helped provide our deputies with in-car computers, body-worn cameras and in-car camera systems. It has helped us improve our Training Academy and firearms training facilities and invest in technology that strengthens officer safety, accountability, evidence collection, and our ability to respond to the citizens we serve.
Those may sound like purchases on a spreadsheet, but I look at them differently.
A patrol vehicle is how a deputy gets to you when you call 911.
A radio is how that deputy calls for help.
A body-worn camera documents what happened.
A training facility is where we prepare deputies to make good decisions on what may be the worst day of someone else's life.
These things matter.
LOST also gives us something that is critically important in public safety: the ability to plan.
I would much rather replace a patrol vehicle because we planned for it than because it broke down. I would rather upgrade technology before it becomes obsolete than after it fails. And I would rather prepare for tomorrow's public safety challenges today than wait until they have arrived at our doorstep.
That is responsible government, and it is responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
Our current capital plan includes replacing approximately 40 vehicles each year, along with continued investments in communications, technology, specialized equipment, and training infrastructure. These are not luxuries. They are the basic infrastructure required to operate a modern and professional law enforcement agency.
Without LOST, those needs do not disappear. Vehicles still wear out. Technology still becomes outdated. Equipment still has to be replaced. The difference is that those expenses would have to compete directly with the dollars used for deputies, dispatchers, investigators, and the other men and women who serve this community every day.
I don't believe that is the best way to plan for public safety.
Most people will never know when we replace a patrol vehicle, upgrade a communications system, or improve a training facility. Frankly, they shouldn't have to. What they should know is that when they need us, we are ready.
You deserve a trained deputy that arrives in a reliable vehicle, with dependable communications, modern equipment, and the preparation necessary to handle whatever situation they encounter.
That kind of readiness doesn't happen by accident. It comes from planning ahead, spending responsibly, and making consistent investments in the infrastructure that supports the men and women protecting our community.
On November 3, Escambia County voters will decide whether to continue that investment for another 10 years.
I support renewing the Local Option Sales Tax because I have seen firsthand what it has meant for public safety in Escambia County and what it allows us to prepare for in the years ahead.
When it comes to public safety, we must plan before the need arises. We have to be ready before the call comes.
Chip W. Simmons is sheriff of Escambia County. He is the former chief of police for the city of Pensacola.
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For more information or to access the original Pensacola News Journal article, visit the Pensacola News Journal site here.
