Rick Francis

Chief Francis started with the Seminole County Sheriff's Office in November 2007. He oversees the Department of School Safety and is responsible for direct oversight of the increasing demands and evolving needs of all aspects of our school safety and security, which comprises seventy (70) public/charter schools with approximately 68,000 students and 10,000 staff members and one-hundred twenty school resource officers, deputies, and supervisors. He is also responsible for school resource deputies at several private schools and the local State College.

Chief Francis has proven to be a national leader and subject matter expert in school safety, having developed our unique initial school safety model and providing guidance and leadership to other districts around the state and nation. He has studied prior school shootings and adverted school shooting incidents. In addition, Chief Francis examined the lessons learned from the incident and the best practices to apply them to his efforts in Seminole County. He masterly views and addresses school safety from various lenses, including his past and current experiences in the military, medic, executive management, tactical, law enforcement, emergency management, educator, and K-12 school administration. He is exceptionally passionate about protecting our most vulnerable.