Pinellas County Sheriff's Office history

Lindsey was most certainly involved in the 1914 lynching of John Evans in St Petersburg.

But when Al Lang became mayor in 1916, one of his priorities was to make the benches uniform.

Whitehurst was removed from office by the governor in 1920, yet struggled to win back public confidence and the popular vote.

Lindsey won the election and stepped into office in early January of 1921.

Roy Booth won the 1924 Democratic primary, then went on to win the election as the county’s fourth Sheriff.

One report recounted that the Sheriff’s Office had made 30 arrests in 30 days, including arresting one man for selling whiskey that was “alleged to have driven three well-known men crazy.” Booth lost the 1928 election to Republican challenger Gladstone Beattie.

In 1934, Sheriff Ernest Cunningham deputized Saunders and assigned him to the St Petersburg district.

In 1953, he joined the Sheriff’s Office as chief criminal investigator.

In 1959, during the tenure of Sheriff Don Genung, the Sheriff’s Office took on a modern identity.

The Sheriff’s Office absorbed the county patrol in 1960.

Stetson cowboy hats were part of the official uniform until 1965.

James “Jim” Coats began his long and productive career with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in 1971 as a deputy sheriff.

Genung retired from the Sheriff’s Office on April 1, 1975, paving the way again for the now firmly established “chain of command inbreeding” policy of handpicking your successor to give them a huge advantage in any upcoming election.

In 1985, Rice resigned his position with the Sheriff’s Office to practice law.

His tenure as Sheriff drew some controversy in 1986 when his top aide, Jack Brady, was the subject of a federal Labor Department investigation into whether he received more money in disability checks than he should have.

After three years with Rice & Kwall, P.A., Rice entered the 1988 Republican bid for Sheriff, won the primary by a hefty two-to-one margin and went on to easily win the 1988 election against Democratic contender Leroy Kelly, Jr.

In May 2002, the court upheld the Sheriff’s and the Clerk’s position in a 4-3 vote.

When Everette Rice later ran for a comeback to win the Sheriff’s election in 2012, he made several missteps along the way, allowing then Sheriff Robert Gualtieri to take the election by 57% of the vote.