Through its seven regional operations centers and six crime laboratories, FDLE delivers investigative, forensic, and information services to Florida's criminal justice community. The department is composed of five divisions.

• Criminal Investigations and Forensic Science manages, coordinates, and provides investigative and forensic services. It conducts independent investigations and coordinates multi-jurisdictional and major impact criminal investigations with local, state, and federal authorities within FDLE’s major focus areas: violent crime, economic crime, drug crime, public integrity, computer crime and domestic security/counterterrorism.
• Criminal Justice Information Services provides screening services to criminal justice agencies, non-criminal justice agencies, and private citizens to identify persons with criminal warrants, arrests, and convictions. The program also provides the information technology infrastructure for FDLE's systems and networks, which support all criminal justice agencies in Florida.
• Criminal Justice Professionalism promotes and facilitates competency and professional conduct of Florida's criminal justice officers and delivers training to FDLE members and Florida’s criminal justice community. It works with criminal justice agencies to provide entry-level and in-service officer training and to maintain disciplinary standards.
• Florida Capitol Police provides uniformed law enforcement operations to ensure the safety and security for the Governor’s Office, the Cabinet, Legislature, visiting dignitaries and other state officials and employees and visitors to the Capitol Complex and Capitol Circle Office Complex.
• Executive Direction and Support provides management, coordination and leadership to the agency and ensures FDLE's mission and objectives are being followed. This includes the Offices of Executive Director, Chief of Staff, Inspector General, Executive Investigations, Protective Operations Section, and Office of the General Counsel.

• Career Offender Search
• Florida Criminal History Search
• Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse (MEPIC)
• Sexual Offenders and Predators Search
• Florida Crime Information Center

Rapid DNA Grant Program. The 2023 Legislature enacted Ch. 2023-234, Laws of Florida, creating the Rapid DNA Grant Program. The program awards grants to county jails or sheriffs' offices to support their processing and expediting of DNA samples, in support of the statewide DNA database.

Florida State Guard Specialized Unit. The 2023 Legislature enacted Ch. 2023-167, Laws of Florida, outlining the role of the Florida State Guard. This role includes a specialized unit, authorized to have the same law enforcement authority as the law enforcement agency which they are working in conjunction with. While activated, this unit is vested with the authority to bear arms, detect, and apprehend. In addition, the Legislature appropriated $107.6 million to fund the State Guard to protect and defend Floridians and augment state and local agencies with a force of up to 1,500 volunteers. Funding is included for 11 employees, training and recruitment, travel, compensation, personnel equipment, maritime and aviation equipment, and fixed capital outlay for equipment storage and operational requirements.

Operation Lone Star. In May 2023, Governor DeSantis announced Florida's renewed participation in Operation Lone Star, at the request of the State of Texas through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. Operation Lone Star involves assisting Texas authorities in patrolling and securing the U.S./Mexico border and in investigating criminal activity near the border. Florida had initially participated in the operation in 2021. Alongside 436 Florida National Guard personnel and 101 Florida Highway Patrol Troopers, the governor deployed 40 FDLE agents who were sworn in to enforce Texas laws. As of  June 8, 2023, 30 FDLE agents remained deployed in Texas, assisting Texas law enforcement in investigating criminal activity along the border.

Uniform Criminal Justice Data Collection. The 2018 Legislature enacted Ch. 2018-127, Laws of Florida, with the intent of creating a model of uniform data collection by requiring local and state criminal justice agencies to report complete, accurate, and timely data, and making such data available to the public to promote criminal justice data transparency. Specifically, the law requires the clerks of court, state attorneys, public defenders, county detention facility administrators, and the Department of Corrections to collect specified data on a biweekly basis and report it to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) on a monthly basis.  FDLE is required to publish the data collected on their website and make it searchable and accessible to the public by January 1, 2020. Through the Criminal Justice Transparency (CJDT) initiative, the department dataset seeks to provide to provide information related to arrests connected to physical bookings, prosecution actions, and court dispositions in all 67 counties in Florida. The 2019 Legislature enacted Ch. 2019-167, Laws of Florida, which amended the law to define new data elements and revise existing ones, and require certain state agencies or local entities to collect and report these elements in an effort to help ensure accurate and comprehensive collection.

The 2021 General Appropriations Act (Ch. 2021-36, Laws of Florida) requires the department to provide monthly status reports to the Executive Office of the Governor’s Office of Policy and Budget, the Department of Management Services, and the chairs of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee in order to receive funding to implement these criminal justice data collection and reporting requirements. Each status report must include progress made to date for each project milestone, deliverable, and task order, planned and actual deliverable completion dates, planned and actual costs incurred, and any project issues and risks. Further, the department is required to competitively procure a private sector provider with experience in conducting independent verification and validation services of public sector information technology projects to provide independent verification and validation services for all department staff and vendor work needed to implement the initiative. The 2022 General Appropriations Act allocated $3 million for data transparency initiatives.

Veterinary Costs Reimbursement for Retired Police Dogs. The 2022 Legislature enacted Ch. 2022-188, Laws of Florida, the Care for Retired Police Dogs Program. The program provides reimbursement of annual veterinary costs associated with caring for a retired police dog for up to $1,500 to the former handler or adopter who incurs the costs. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will administrate and manage the program by contracting with a not-for-profit corporation. The program must receive valid documentation of the dog's retirement from a law enforcement or correctional agency and that the dog served for five years or more. Valid documentation is also required for injured dogs who served three or more years with one or more law enforcement or correctional agencies, and retired due to injury while in the line of duty. To receive reimbursement, a valid paid invoice from the veterinarian for veterinary costs is required. For the purpose of implementing and administrating the program, the law includes an appropriation of $300,000 in recurring funds from the General Revenue Fund.

Other Reports
Quick Stats 2022, Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and Publications, Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Review of Cabinet and Long-Range Program Plan Performance Measures, FDLE Inspector General, Project Number PM-1718-01, September 2018
Department of Law Enforcement - Administration of Aircraft, Selected Information Technology Controls, and Prior Audit Follow-Up, Auditor General Report 2020-062, November 2019
The Auditor General reports on department operations are available on its website

Websites of Interest
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website

Performance Information

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