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The veteran lawman, in his first political campaign, talks of a "new vision'' for the sheriff's office.
By TAMARA LUSH
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 1, 2000
Second in a series of profiles of the candidates in the Republican sheriff's primary.
Bob White came to a pivotal point early in his law enforcement career on Oct. 18, 1974.
At the time a 24-year-old Florida Highway Patrol deputy, he found himself in a remote orange grove in Polk County, chasing a speeding car.
White's cruiser got stuck in the sand, and the other car -- with two fugitives inside -- drove straight at him. He fired his gun once, and the car turned. White fired again, then two more times, hitting the rear tire and the axle.
One month later, White was reprimanded by his troop commander for an "unnecessary use of firearms."
It was the first and only time White shot at another man.
"It taught me to act with more restraint," he said.
White, now 50, is putting that restraint to good use.
He's running for the Republican nomination for sheriff, and he says he often holds his tongue when he's about to criticize the incumbent, Democratic Sheriff Lee Cannon. In a race that has been marked with controversy, scandal and shoot-from-the-hip candidates in the past, White admits he's a newcomer, and says he wants to stick to the issues.
"I can't say that I've groomed myself for politics over the past 22 years," said White, who is making his first attempt at elected office.
White talks of bringing a "new vision and a new focus" to the sheriff's office, and says he will treat the agency's employees "like family."
He says he has ideas on how he would reshuffle staffing and retool special units within the agency to increase road patrols but won't discuss details until after the primary. He says he will improve deputies' morale by making the patrol officers' jobs more challenging, allowing for more investigative time and less "mechanical report-taking."
"The job has to be challenging, not overwhelming," he said. "Now, they are jumping from call to call, there's low manpower and the majority of people on nights have under two years experience."
White said he will "court the County Commission like a prom queen" when it comes to obtaining matching grant money for the department.
White knows the frustration of being an underpaid and overworked patrol officer. He started his law enforcement career with two short-lived patrol jobs, one at the Brooksville Police Department, the other at the Sumter County Sheriff's Office.
From there, he worked at the FHP for four years, then was hired as an agent with the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco. There, he made a high-profile bust in 1978 when he and a Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrested Freddie Lee Hall in a Hernando County swamp. Hall was later convicted of the murder of Hernando Sheriff's Deputy Lonnie Coburn outside a convenience store.
White took a break from law enforcement in 1981, when he went to work for a savings and loan in Brooksville. But the business "took kind of a tumble" in the savings and loan crisis and White returned to the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco in 1987. There, he handled vice investigations including drugs, gambling and underage drinking.
He became a sergeant, and by the time he took his leave of absence to run for office in July, White supervised seven agents in his office.
White's opponents criticize him for thinking that he can run a 900-person department after having never supervised more than seven people. But White doesn't think there will be a learning curve.
White said he will actually supervise fewer employees if elected sheriff because he will directly supervise just the four majors at the sheriff's office.
When asked how he will handle areas he admittedly knows little about -- such as the 500-inmate county jail, which is run by the sheriff -- White says he will appoint experts to handle those areas.
"I've seen over the years that experience or even education isn't the ticket," said White, who attended a half-dozen community colleges before earning his associate's degree from Pasco-Hernando Community College.
White's campaign has been quiet, marked with a few fundraisers, some glad-handing at the mall and a mailing which includes a photo of a young White in a trooper's uniform.
He generated a flurry of interest when he announced his candidacy. He gathered 2,112 signatures in two months and was later criticized by other candidates for obtaining campaign contributions from Sam Rashid, a Hillsborough businessman and Republican strategist.
Rashid, his family and three businesses gave White $2,500, which led some Pasco Republicans to wonder who was funneling the contacts and money to White.
White said he met Rashid through a friend in the Police Benevolent Association, and that Rashid supports Republicans statewide, not just in Hillsborough County.
But despite the initial interest in White, he is not raising as much money as another of the Republican candidates, Gil Thivener, who has raised about $24,000. As of this week, White had raised about $17,700, and spent all but $4,000, mostly on signs and flyers.
White says the campaign is not about him, but about the sheriff's employees and the Pasco taxpayers.
"I really don't pay attention to the rest of the field," said White. "I'm not running against any of these guys. I'm running for principle and people. There's always going to be someone smarter, faster, prettier, bigger and stronger."