Monroe County sheriff’s academy gives residents inside look at deputies’ work

Residents from Key West to Key Largo are getting a behind-the-scenes look at how Monroe County deputies work as the sheriff’s office launched its 11th Citizens Academy class. About 70 participants are expected to graduate from the seven-week program, which is being split across the Upper, Middle and Lower Keys so people can join without having to travel to one island community.

The academy has become a regular public outreach effort for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. In 2025, the office said the program was in its 10th year, and in 2024 it was described as the ninth Citizen’s Police Academy. That year, more than 50 people took part across Key West, Marathon and Islamorada, meeting one night a week for two months. Some specialty-unit sessions stretched nearly four hours, showing how much ground the class covers.

The curriculum opens parts of law enforcement that most residents only see from the outside. Participants learn patrol procedures, take jail tours and get introductions to Simunitions and Taser training. The academy also covers traffic and felony stops, crime scene investigations, building searches, and work by bomb, dive, SWAT, major crimes and special investigations units. In a county where deputies handle everything from U.S. 1 traffic stops to marine calls and neighborhood complaints, the program gives residents a look at how those pieces fit together.

Sheriff Rick Ramsay has said the academy helps explain the scope of his office, which he describes as the county’s chief law enforcement agency. “We’re in the air medical business. We’re in 911 dispatch centers. We’re in jails. We’re in patrol divisions...” Ramsay said, underscoring how much of the county’s public safety system sits inside the sheriff’s office. Colonel Chad Scibilia oversees the operations, corrections and administrative bureaus, while Chief Mike Rice oversees administration, including emergency communications.

The classroom setting also puts a human face on deputies’ work. Jesús Parra, who took part in a previous class, said he had long been curious about how officers face life-threatening challenges and still go home to their families, and said the sessions were interactive and fun. In Monroe County, where the sheriff’s office serves a long, divided chain of islands, the academy has become one way to make law enforcement feel less remote and more visible to the people it serves.