INSPIRATION / ROB URBAN
Mike Chitwood
The promise
has to reach
someone.
A public stand against antisemitism.
The continuing work of paying attention.
In February 2023, antisemitic displays and harassment in Central Florida demanded a response beyond a statement of concern. Mike Chitwood, Volusia County’s sheriff, made his position public. He also described work his agency was doing with the people being targeted.
What I admire about that response is its understanding of who needed to hear it. A person being singled out by hatred should be able to look toward a public institution and find someone willing to be unmistakable.
That willingness has practical consequences. It gives a worried community something firmer than the hope that somebody, somewhere, is paying attention. Chitwood spoke publicly, and he described how attention would continue through the work of the agency.
There is a form of courage in that continuity. The news conference ends. People still have services to attend, children to raise and ordinary lives they should be free to enjoy.
CENTRAL FLORIDA / 2023
Someone
willing to
be clear.
The Sheriff’s Office’s May 2023 account describes antisemitic messages projected onto Daytona International Speedway, a banner near the racetrack and flyers distributed in neighborhoods. It records Chitwood calling a news conference and an interfaith rally in response.
The office also reported threats directed at Chitwood, his family and staff after he spoke out. That placed the public position under personal pressure. The account documents the consequences of taking the position, alongside support from community members.
I find it admirable when a person with authority accepts some of the discomfort that has been imposed on others. The people targeted by antisemitism did not volunteer to make their identity a public issue. A sheriff has a choice about how clearly to stand beside them.
Speaking plainly also changes the burden of the conversation. Community members should not have to begin every request for help by persuading someone that the concern deserves to be taken seriously. Public acknowledgment can give the next conversation a better place to start.
That is why the interfaith rally belongs in this story. A targeted community deserves support that reaches beyond its own members. Hatred tries to make people feel isolated. Showing up together is a visible answer to that attempt.
Attention has a daily life.
In a February 28, 2023 interview with Central Florida Public Media, Chitwood described extra patrols, regular contact with Jewish community members, attention to the timing of services and events, and shared reports through the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange.
The distinction between these jobs matters. Increased presence cannot replace a conversation. A conversation cannot replace the work of connecting reports. Each part gives the others something to use.
The detail about services and events stays with me. It recognizes that a community has a rhythm. There are times when people gather, places that matter and people who can explain what is happening. Effective attention begins by listening to those details.
A schedule can seem like a small thing beside a public declaration. To someone responsible for opening a building or welcoming a congregation, it is part of the actual day. Knowing when people will arrive is one way a broad promise becomes useful to a particular person.
It also makes the agency’s response a shared responsibility. The public voice belongs to the sheriff, but the work requires people who receive information, decide where it should go and act on it. An institutional promise becomes credible through those handoffs.
I admire that shared work. Leadership gets much of the attention, but someone answers the call, listens carefully and makes sure the next person has what they need. The value of a clear public stand includes what it allows those people to carry forward.
In the same radio interview, Chitwood said his academy classes visited a Holocaust museum. Bringing history into training asks recruits to understand something about the people they may later be called to help.
Historical knowledge cannot tell an officer everything about an individual experience. It can make it harder to dismiss that experience as unfamiliar. A symbol or a message arrives with a history, and the person encountering it may know that history intimately.
I respect the choice to make room for that learning before a difficult conversation takes place. Curiosity and preparation are forms of care people can practice before anyone needs to ask for them.
And then
there were
the cards.
One detail in the Sheriff’s Office’s May 2023 account deserves to be remembered alongside the public statements. Chitwood received thank-you cards, notes and artwork from kindergarten through eighth-grade students at Hillel Academy of Tampa.
Young people took time to respond to an adult who had publicly stood against antisemitism. A card or a drawing is a small thing to make, but it carries the attention of the person who made it. I like that the account leaves room for those contributions.
That brings the story back to a human scale. The work of public safety reaches people who may never read an agency plan. They can still notice who speaks, who shows up and who treats their community as worth protecting.
The cards are a lovely detail because they make that attention reciprocal. A public act travels outward. Someone sees it and sends something back.
After the public moment
Chitwood’s official biography records his service as Daytona Beach police chief before becoming Volusia sheriff in 2017. The 2023 response put that public leadership role in view through a specific local problem.
My admiration here rests on that specific response. He made the position clear, accepted pressure for taking it and described work that other people could continue. There is something hopeful in seeing a public commitment become part of an ordinary working day.
The useful details remain: a conversation before a gathering, information passed to a colleague, time spent learning a history. None requires an audience to matter.
Chitwood’s radio interview also encouraged residents to report incidents. The agency’s current reporting page provides its routes for emergency and non-emergency assistance. A public institution needs to remain reachable long after the moment that brought it attention.
That is the part of this example I want to carry with me. Courage can make a public moment memorable. Continued attention can make it useful to the next person who needs help.
About this account
What response does this essay examine?
It examines Mike Chitwood’s public response to antisemitic incidents in Central Florida in February 2023, including the community contact, patrol attention and information sharing he described in a radio interview.
When did Mike Chitwood become Volusia County sheriff?
His official biography records that he was sworn in on January 3, 2017, after serving as Daytona Beach police chief.
Where are the original accounts?
The essay links to Central Florida Public Media’s February 28, 2023 interview, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office’s May 25, 2023 account, his official biography and the agency’s reporting page.
Sources are linked where discussed. Agency statements are identified as agency accounts; the interpretation and admiration are mine.
I’m Rob Urban. I write about people whose choices deserve a closer look. More about my writing and consulting.