Anthony Collins becomes first black Chief Deputy in Hillsborough County Sheriff Office history
Anthony Collins has served HCSO for 21 years and is now a Chief Deputy.
Collins is the first African-American to serve in this role, and it's the highest position any African-American has ever held at HCSO.
Collins was born and raised in East Tampa, where he attended King High School, and had a relationship with HCSO that started well before he started patrolling the Tampa streets as a deputy.
'I wasn't the greatest kid growing up, so I got suspended,' Collins chuckles while reminiscing. 'I found myself in a program called ATOSS, it was an alternative to out-of-school suspension. Mark Penix was the off-duty deputy working at the ATOSS site, and we ended up building a relationship so much so that he is like a God Dad to me.'
HCSO investigating deputy-involved shooting in Brandon
USF police investigate gun accessory found on campus
Anthony Collins becomes first black Chief Deputy in Hillsborough County Sheriff Office history
That high school suspension is what opened his eyes to a career in law enforcement, which was not typical for someone who looked like him growing up in East Tampa.
'It was pretty abnormal for people in my environment because I grew up in East Tampa,' said Collins. 'I think the adversity and challenges that people face who grew up in an environment like that are second to none.'
Collins' interaction with the off-duty deputy led him to HCSO's Explorer Program, a youth program that exposes youth and young adults to different professions and vocations while also exposing them to the law enforcement field. That taste birthed a dream.
'I wanted to be like Mike Lowry, like on Bad Boys, work undercover and be on the SWAT,' Collins said.
It sounds a little wild, but he did. All of it. Joining HCSO in 2004 while serving in the Army National Guard, Collins started out patrolling the university area, then served on the SWAT team for nine years.
'I busted and stopped multi-million dollar drug organizations,' said Collins. 'I worked with agencies like the FBI and DEA during several operations.
Collins was then promoted to Corporal, working crimes against children.
'This part of my career was a true defining moment,' said Collins. 'Crimes against children is tough. No one wants to see an abused 6-month-old; it just makes you work that much harder because you absolutely have to close those cases and get justice for those children.'
After a couple of years working in crimes against children, Collins rose in the ranks.
He went from Sergeant to Lieutenant to Captain to Major to Colonel and now Chief Deputy.
'I grew up in a family where no one ever even graduated from college, so it's humbling to come from that point to be here talking to you,' Collins said. 'It is very, very humbling to be given this position. First and foremost, my faith is what got me to this point. Believing in God and do the right thing for the right reasons.'
He gives a lot of credit to Sheriff Chad Chronister; however, his own dedication, work, and respect were not given, but earned.
Chief Deputy Collins now oversees at least 1,000 of the department's 2,000 employees, which includes the Marine unit. He also oversees a $654 million budget.
While he may be the first African-American in this position, he is ensuring he won't be the last.
'Truth of the matter is every day I come to work, I don't come to work for me, I come to work for everyone who's coming behind me and to make sure I use this platform so that way those individuals can go further than me,' Collins said.
Collins is extremely involved in the community. He holds board memberships with the Pace Center for Girls, ACTS Florida, and the Derrick Brooks Charities Youth Programs. He has earned numerous commendations, which reflect his passion for this community. Collins is a devoted husband and father of two as well.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
California cannabis firm raided by ICE unveils big labor changes to avoid a repeat
One of California's largest legal cannabis companies announced Monday that it would radically revamp its labor practices in the wake of a massive immigration raid at two company facilities last month. The raid led to the death of one worker and the detention of more than 360 people, including, according to government officials, 14 minors. Glass House Brands announced it had 'terminated its relationship' with the two farm labor contractors who had provided workers to the cannabis green house operations in Camarillo and Carpinteria. It also announced that it has 'made significant changes to labor practices that are above and beyond legal requirements.' Those include hiring experts to scrutinize workers' documents as well as hiring the consulting firm Guidepost Services to advise the company on best practices for determining employment eligibility. The firm is led by Julie Myers Wood, a former ICE director under President George W. Bush. The company also said it has signed a new 'labor peace' agreement with the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters. Glass House officials declined to comment publicly beyond what was in a press release, but a source close to the company said that officials wanted to 'make sure we never have a situation that we had on July 10. We can't have this ever happen again.' On that day, federal agents in masks and riot gear stormed across Glass House operations in Ventura and Santa Barbara county in the state's largest ICE workplace raid in recent memory. Agents chased panicked workers through vast green houses and deployed tear gas and less-than-lethal projectiles at protesters and employees. One worker, Jaime Alanis Garcia, died after he fell three stories from the roof of a greenhouse trying to evade capture. Others were bloodied from shards of glass broken or hid for hours on the roofs or beneath the leaves and plastic shrouding. More than 360 people — a mixture of workers, family members of workers, protesters and passerby—were ultimately detained, including at least two American citizens including a U.S. Army veteran. In the wake of the raid, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that Glass House had been targeted because 'we knew, specifically from casework we had built for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there was children there that could be trafficked, being exploited, that there was individuals there involved in criminal activity.' To date, neither Homeland Security nor the U.S. Department of Justice have announced any legal action regardlng the alleged trafficking and exploitation of juveniles. In its press release, Glass House said that just nine of its direct employees were detained; all others picked up were either employees of its labor contractors or were 'unassociated with the company.' With regards to the government's contention that it had found children working in cannabis, the company said: 'while the identities of the alleged minors have not been disclosed, the company has been able to determine that, if those reports are true, none of them were Glass House employees.' California labor law allows children as young as 12 to work in agriculture, but workers must be 21 to work in cannabis. The raid devastated Glass House and its workforce. Numerous workers were detained or disappeared, terrified to return. Those that remained were so distraught the company called in grief counselors. Across the wider world of legal cannabis, people were also shaken. Glass House, which is backed by wealthy investors and presents a sleek corporate image in the wild world of cannabis in California, has long been known as the 'Walmart of Weed.' Many in California's cannabis industry feared the raid on Glass House was a signal that the federal government's ceasefire against cannabis —which is legal in California but still not federally—had come to an end. In the wake of the raid, the United Farm Workers and other organizations warned farm laborers who were not citizens — even those with legal status — to avoid working in cannabis because 'cannabis remains criminalized under federal law.' In its statement, Glass House said the search warrant served on the company the day of the raid was seeking 'evidence of possible immigration violations.' A source close to the company said officials have had no further contact with the federal government since the raid. Some farm labor advocates were unimpressed by the company's announcement of revamped labor practices, saying it was farm workers who would pay the price. Lucas Zucker, co-executive director of Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE, said Glass House was using farm labor contractors to avoid responsibility 'while their workers are torn away from their families in handcuffs.' 'This shows the double standards of our legal system, where corporations can profit from the immigrant workers their businesses depend on, yet wipe their hands clean when it becomes inconvenient,' he said. He added that 'many farmworkers are still struggling to navigate this mess of labor contractors and have not been paid for the work they did at Glass House.' A source close to Glass House said company officials want to make sure everyone who was at work on the day of the raid receives all the wages they are owed. Company officials authorized all workers to be paid through 11:30 pm on the day of the raid, because workers who had finished their shifts couldn't get out because immigration agents were blocking the doors. The source said the farm labor contractors had been paid and should have released wages to all the workers. 'We don't want anyone to be shorted,' the source said.
The Hill
3 hours ago
- The Hill
DOJ to launch grand jury probe over Russia allegations against Obama officials
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday directed Justice Department officials to open a grand jury investigation over how Obama administration officials handled intelligence about Russian interference in the 2016 election. The grand jury probe marks another escalation of the Trump administration's focus on allegations of wrongdoing by Obama officials, including the former president. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has in recent weeks declassified various documents connected to Russia's election interference, claiming it showed 'treasonous conspiracy' by Obama administration officials. 'Following the compelling case outlined by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, which exposed clear and blatant weaponization by corrupt intelligence officials acting at the behest of the Democrat Party and likely former President Obama, the Administration remains committed to conducting a thorough investigation,' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement. 'This effort aims to provide the American people with the truth about the extent to which former government officials worked to sabotage the Trump administration and undermine the will of the American people in a clear attempt to subvert our Constitutional Republic,' Fields added. Fox News first reported that Bondi had directed the start of a grand jury investigation. The documents Gabbard has released do little to suggest wrongdoing by the intelligence community in seeking to investigate Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 contest. Gabbard and other officials have pushed back on established findings from the intelligence community and a bipartisan Senate panel that Russia showed a preference for then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Gabbard has alleged that Obama officials manipulated intelligence to harm Trump. Gabbard referred the documents to the Justice Department and FBI for potential criminal referrals, though the director repeatedly dodged when pressed on what crime former President Obama could be charged with. Obama's office issued a rare public statement calling the document drops a 'distraction' as Trump faced calls to release information about the prosecution of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. James Clapper, who served as director of national intelligence under Obama and has faced intense criticism from Trump officials, has called the allegations against him 'patently false and unfounded.'
San Francisco Chronicle
5 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bondi moves forward on Justice Department investigation into origins of Trump-Russia probe
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed that the Justice Department move forward with a probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation following the recent release of documents aimed at undermining the legitimacy of the inquiry that established that Moscow interfered on the Republican's behalf in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Bondi has directed a prosecutor to present evidence to a grand jury after referrals from the Trump administration's top intelligence official, a person familiar with the matter said Monday. That person was not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. Fox News first reported the development. It was not clear which former officials might be the target of any grand jury activity, where the grand jury that might ultimately hear evidence will be located or which prosecutors — whether career employees or political appointees — might be involved in pursuing the investigation. It was also not clear what precise claims of misconduct Trump administration officials believe could form the basis of criminal charges, which a grand jury would have to sign off on for an indictment to be issued. The development is likely to heighten concerns that the Justice Department is being used to achieve political ends, given longstanding grievances over the Russia investigation voiced by President Donald Trump, who has called for the jailing of perceived political adversaries. Any criminal investigation would revisit one of the most dissected chapters of modern American political history. It is also surfacing at a time when the Trump administration is being buffeted by criticism over its handling of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation. The investigation into Russian election interference resulted in the appointment of a special counsel, Robert Mueller, who secured multiple convictions against Trump aides and allies but did not establish proof of a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign. The inquiry shadowed much of Trump's first term and he has long focused his ire on senior officials from the intelligence and law enforcement community, including former FBI Director James Comey, whom he fired in May 2017, and former CIA Director John Brennan. The Justice Department appeared to confirm an investigation into both men in an unusual statement last month but offered no details. Multiple special counsels, congressional committees and the Justice Department's own inspector general have studied and documented a multi-pronged effort by Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election on Trump's behalf, including through a hack-and-leak dump of Democratic emails and a covert social media operation aimed at sowing discord and swaying public opinion. But that conclusion has been aggressively challenged in recent weeks as Trump's director of national intelligence and other allies have released previously classified records that they hope will cast doubt on the extent of Russian interference and establish an Obama administration effort to falsely link Trump to Russia. In one batch of documents released last month, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, disclosed emails showing that senior Obama administration officials were aware in 2016 that Russians had not hacked state election systems to manipulate the votes in Trump's favor. But President Barack Obama's administration never alleged that votes were tampered with and instead detailed other forms of election interference and foreign influence. A new outcry surfaced last week when Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a set of documents that FBI Director Kash Patel claimed on social media proved that the 'Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax.' The documents were part of a classified annex of a report issued in 2023 by John Durham, the special counsel who was appointed during the first Trump administration to hunt for any government misconduct during the Russia investigation. Durham did identify significant flaws in the investigation but uncovered no bombshells to disprove the existence of Russian election interference. His sprawling probe produced three criminal cases; two resulted in acquittals and the third was a guilty plea from a little-known FBI lawyer to a charge of making a false statement. Republicans seized on a July 27, 2016, email in Durham's newly declassified annex that purported to say that Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic candidate for president, had approved a plan during the heat of the campaign to link Trump with Russia. But the purported author of the email, a senior official at a philanthropic organization founded by billionaire investor George Soros, told Durham's team he had never sent the email and the alleged recipient said she never called receiving it. Durham's own report took pain to note that investigators had not corroborated the communications as authentic and said the best assessment was that the message was 'a composites of several emails" the Russians had obtained from hacking — raising the likelihood of Russian disinformation. The FBI's Russia investigation was opened on July 31, 2016, following a tip that a Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had told a Russian diplomat that Russia was in possession of dirt on Clinton.
