Seminole County honors six fallen deputies on Peace Officers Memorial Day

The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office marked National Peace Officers Memorial Day by honoring six deputies killed in the line of duty, a remembrance that still reaches into training, safety and family support in Sanford. Officials said the losses remain part of the office’s daily culture, not just a once-a-year observance during National Police Week.

Two names anchor that history for Seminole County. Deputy Sheriff Matt Miller’s end of watch was Dec. 26, 2011, and Deputy Sheriff Eugene Gregory’s end of watch was July 8, 1998. The sheriff’s office says Gregory’s death helped inspire a more proactive role in mental health intervention and treatment, a shift that shows how the agency turned a painful loss into a lasting change in how it responds to people in crisis.

The annual memorial service was held at 10 a.m. at the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, 100 Bush Blvd. in Sanford. Family members and descendants of each of the six fallen officers took part in a rose ceremony at the memorial monument, a detail that underscores how the county has kept the survivors of the fallen within the center of its remembrance.

That local tradition also fits into a broader law-enforcement memorial network. Seminole County Sheriff Dennis M. Lemma, serving as president of the Florida Sheriffs Association, joined the 2026 state memorial ceremony honoring 11 fallen deputies from across Florida. The association said its Memorial Wall now carries 448 names, a count that reflects how many sheriff’s office families have been marked by line-of-duty deaths.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund says more than 21,000 law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty since 1791. In Seminole County, that national toll is reflected in six individual names and in the practical changes that followed their loss, from crisis response to the way the sheriff’s office stands with the families who still carry those deaths.