Homeless people make up increasing number of Orange County arrests, data shows

Near the end of June, a senior executive inside the Orange County government opened an automated email detailing the number of inmates under correction officers’ care the day before.

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“Crossed over 3200 inmates today… substantially. It’s been a while since we’ve seen that volume,” Public Safety Director Danny Banks wrote to corrections leader Louis Quiñones. “Seems to me that the arrest numbers have remained fairly consistent over time, but the overall jail population continues to climb.”

Quiñones, Banks and others launched a review of the arrests and data to figure out the source of the trend. They found Banks’ assessment to be partially true. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s arrest statistics had remained stable for four years in a row, but neighboring Orlando was booking people at almost twice the rate it once had.

The data also revealed two statistics that set off further discussions across the county: the typical number of inmates housed at the jail had risen by nearly 1,000 in just a two-year span, and – according to an assessment by staff members – an increasing number of homeless people arrested by the Orlando Police Department played a large part in it.

Read: New law makes it illegal for homeless to camp out on streets, sidewalks & parks

An eight-figure surprise

Over the past four years, jail statistics showed overall arrests in Orlando rose from 23 people per day to 41 people per day.

Homeless arrests also increased – and at a much faster rate, climbing from five per day to 13. Where Orlando officers once booked one homeless person for every five they brought to the jail, the number had increased to one in three in the first six months of 2024.

Jail statistics reflected that. Almost a third of people booked into the Orange County Jail since January were classified as homeless. The analysis by jail staff explained most of the homeless arrests were for drug possession, specifically mentioning a rise in MDMA/ecstasy possession.

Staff members also said as arrests increased over the past year, the jail’s release rate had fallen – potentially reflecting inmates’ inability to pay the bonds set by judges in order to secure their release.

Banks’ inquiry about the jail population came as Orange County was preparing for its annual budget review, in which departments would have to make their cases to get priorities funded in front of commissioners during two bruising day-long sessions.

For the corrections department, more inmates mean more dollars spent on staff, meals and other items required to run the highly secure facility.

Homeless inmates, who often come with mental health needs, also come with extra costs. During the budget hearings last week, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings pinned it at $42 per inmate per day.

At the same time, he estimated that 43% of inmates living at the Orange County jail needed those services.

“If those numbers continue to rise, just in the year, that’s a $15.3 million potential cost increase to us,” Demings said, who noted that the jail hadn’t seen the number of inmates it currently has since October 2011.

Read: Local county has meeting for homeless shelters

He explained that the expense was in the county’s interest, as it hoped to lower the rate of re-arrests by people released back into society.

In an interview at City Hall Monday, Chief Eric Smith said his department did not have any policies that would lead to a rise in the number of homeless arrests, and pointed out there were just a handful of arrests for the hundreds of encounters his officers make with homeless residents every week.

He said his homeless unit was usually out on the streets, handing out information about shelter and other assistance and moving people along without using any force.

“I wouldn’t say that we’re out there particularly looking at the homeless or arresting them for anything that they do,” Chief Smith said. “It’s our main job to keep our community safe, so how we do that is when sometimes people do illegal things, they will get arrested.”

A senior staff member at the department added on to what Smith said, explaining that the new chief is more proactive about making arrests than his predecessor – regardless of who was being brought in.

Read: Orlando homeless outreach organization struggles with “squatters”

Future concerns

Additional fears about homeless inmates sprung up during Banks’ review as he and others looked to the future.

Banks specifically cited a new Florida law that criminalizes camping on public property , which instructed governments to create temporary camps where the homeless could be housed at the same time.

“There is a widely-shared fear that this new law will increase the number of arrests for homeless trespassing,” Banks wrote in another email. “Thus, causing a significant increase to our inmate population.”

The emails come on the back of another law, where Orlando commissioners gave the go-ahead for police to handcuff people blocking sidewalks in a vote that was widely regarded as anti-homeless.

Demings and other county commissioners spoke up during the budget hearings about finding productive solutions to the homelessness problem.

Some of the strongest comments, though, came from the man tasked with prosecuting the arrests OPD officers made.

“I’m already thinking about how we’re dealing with the homelessness situation,” State Attorney Andrew Bain said. “How can we help not criminalize people for being homeless, which is an obscene thing that happens in our circuit right now.”

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