Partnership with Law Enforcement is an essential part of this job. Without Law Enforcement, their resources and the sharing of information it would be very difficult to apprehend offenders who are non compliant with probation. A Planned Compliance Initiative is a sweep that is used by Officers to ensure that offenders are in compliance with probation. During a Planned Compliance Initiative, Officers go out with Law Enforcement to apprehend high risk offenders with active warrants. Probation and Parole is considered a Certified Law Enforcement. Probation Officers have arrest powers for those who are being supervised by the Florida Department of Corrections.
Firearms
It is up to the Officer to decide if they will carry a firearm. Firearms can be carried open and do not have to be concealed. Each Officer must purchase their own firearm and must qualify with the firearm once a year to achieve a minimum score set forth by the Florida Department of Corrections and Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Court
One of the major roles of an officer is to testify in court for violation of probation. Officers must testify about instructions which were provided to the offender, whether the offender understood the instructions, how the violation occurred, how the officer became aware of the violation, and must also respond to general questions about the offender’s progress or non compliance.
