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In Polk County Florida, a 30-year-old man is facing multiple charges after his attempt to start a house fire. The man was identified as Luke Neely from Lakeland, Florida. Here is all the craziness that went down: It started Sunday morning when Polk County Deputies received a 911 call at 8:11 AM about a man in a Northlake Neighborhood throwing a "Molotov Cocktail" incendiary weapon at a residence. When police arrived on the scene they witnessed Neely getting into a Chevrolet pickup truck and driving away. The deputies followed him and tried to conduct a traffic stop, but Neely was...

Cpl. Ray Hamilton (Image courtesy of Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office) A sheriff’s deputy in Florida was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call on Christmas Eve, according to authorities. Cpl. Ray Hamilton, a five-year veteran and member of the Okaloosa County Sherriff’s Office (OCSO) Special Response Team, succumbed to his injury at a hospital Saturday afternoon following a standoff at a home in Fort Walton Beach, per news releases from OCSO. The suspect in the fatal shooting, 43-year-old Timothy Price-Williams, was detained and faces a charge of premeditated murder. OCSO had obtained a warrant for Price-Williams on...

Florida Gov. Rick Scott asked the state’s law-enforcement commissioner Sunday to immediately investigate the response to the deadly school shooting last week in Parkland. Mr. Scott’s move comes as Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said he was further investigating his officers’ handling of the shooting as criticism mounts that the agency failed to stop the gunman. The law-enforcement commissioner is Rick Swearingen, who was appointed to the post in 2014 and has more than 30 years of experience in the state and capitol-police agencies Detectives with the sheriff’s office are reviewing claims from officers in nearby Coral Springs Police Department...

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was inundated with hundreds of phone calls Saturday after a group of protesters outside Gov. Rick Scott's office tweeted that Capitol Police were denying them food and water and urged people to call the agency in protest. The FDLE denied the allegations and asked the media not to republish the phone numbers put out by the protest group Dream Defenders. FDLE officials said some of those phone numbers are used by law enforcement agencies throughout the state to request Amber Alerts and crime scene or investigative help. Phillip Agnew, the Dream Defenders leader, said...

Prisoner poker could crack cold cases By PHIL DAVIS, Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 24, 6:10 PM ET TAMPA, Fla. - Prison inmates are getting a present from the state of Florida: playing cards. For detectives looking to solve dozens of cold cases, it's the start of a game of Go Fish that might pay off big. On Tuesday, Florida's nearly 93,000 state inmates started getting one of two decks that between them highlight 104 of the state's most troubling unsolved murder and missing persons cases. "What better way to get them talking than to have cards with the cases...

Is Organized Effort Under Way To Confuse Voters? POSTED: 5:14 pm EDT October 22, 2004 UPDATED: 5:33 pm EDT October 22, 2004 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- State elections leaders worry there may be an organized effort to confuse or even disenfranchise voters, especially young adults. University of South Florida student Megan Altman was a Democrat from Wisconsin, but not after she was pressured into signing what she thought was a petition last month, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported. The petition-gatherers actually slipped her a voter registration form. She confronted them the next day when she learned what they were up to. "I...

local6.com Statewide Task Force Created To Investigate Voter Fraud Complaints POSTED: 10:25 PM EDT October 21, 2004 UPDATED: 12:00 AM EDT October 22, 2004 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has set up a statewide task force to investigate voter fraud complaints, saying problems are popping up in so many places it doesn't make sense to investigate them separately. The department has received complaints about voter registration or absentee ballot issues in Bay, Leon, Orange, Alachua, Broward and Miami-Dade counties and also plans to work with investigators in Duval County who are already looking into fraud allegations...

If you repeat a rumor enough times, people assume it's true. That's what's happening now, with allegations of voter intimidation surrounding the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's investigation into the Orlando mayoral election. The March election, you'll recall, was marred by allegations that Ezzie Thomas -- a consultant whom Buddy Dyer paid $10,000 -- manipulated the absentee ballots of old, black voters. Dyer's challenger, Ken Mulvaney, challenged the election results, saying that Thomas' alleged chicanery boosted Dyer to victory.The FDLE opened an investigation to see if Thomas illegally pressured absentee voters to vote for Dyer, and if he violated a...

Law-enforcement agents raided Orlando City Hall on Friday and carted off computers used by top managers in the Fire Department as part of their widening investigation into possible election fraud in the mayor's race. Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement would reveal few details of their inquiry, but a search warrant indicated that investigators are trying to determine whether city firefighters were improperly paid with taxpayer money while campaigning for Mayor Buddy Dyer. "It's part of our ongoing criminal investigation of election fraud," FDLE legal adviser Steve Brady said. "It's all related to the same issue, the mayoral-election...

The state's top law-enforcement agency on Tuesday intensified its investigation into Orlando's March elections, saying the probe into potential voting irregularities and fraud could result in racketeering charges. The decision to move forward with the investigation was made after Florida Department of Law Enforcement representatives reviewed its evidence, including seized absentee-ballot envelopes, with the State Attorney's Office. The FDLE would not confirm the focus of its investigation, but said it included Mayor Buddy Dyer's race for re-election. Dyer avoided a runoff with his closest opponent, political newcomer Ken Mulvaney, with just 234 votes to spare.

Breaking News from The Guetzloe Report... Florida Department of Law Enforcement Agents have seized all of the absentee ballots that were cast in the recent City of Orlando Mayor's race. Yesterday, (5/20/04), agents served Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles with a subpoena for all of the tainted absentee ballots cast in the March 9, 2004 Mayor's election. The ballot were removed from the Elections Supervisor's office and are now in the custody of FDLE investigators. This action was taken as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the allegations of widespread fraud by the Dyer campaign during the...

FDLE cross-training 35 police officers to also serve as INS agents Tuesday, July 23, 2002 By MIREIDY FERNANDEZ, mmfernandez@naplesnews.com While Florida law enforcement officials spearhead a pilot program designating officers to also serve as INS agents, all eyes are on the Sunshine State in anticipation of what could become the national model for domestic security. On July 9, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Domestic Security Task Force began cross-training 35 officers from police agencies statewide to increase their expertise in federal immigration matters. The officers — five of whom are from Southwest Florida — will serve the dual role...