🌟𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐀𝐘🌟
𝙰𝚍𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚃𝚎𝚌𝚑𝚗𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚢 𝚂𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚄𝚗𝚒𝚝: 𝚂𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝙺𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚗 𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎
Keeping up with the latest and greatest technology is a cornerstone of Sheriff Carmine Marceno’s vision for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. To that end, LCSO’s Advanced Technology Support Unit (ATSU) has grown tremendously. ATSU oversees the agency’s drone program, implementation of body-worn cameras, robot dogs, 3D printing, license plate recognition cameras, and more.
Sgt. Kevin Justice has played an integral role as ATSU has developed over the past couple of years. A Fort Myers native, Justice graduated from Cape Coral High in 2007 and opted for a career in law enforcement.
“I had family that worked for LCSO and decided to go in that direction,” he said. “After going through the academy, I began in Corrections in April of 2008. It was a great learning experience right out of high school.”
Starting at the downtown jail, Justice moved to the Core about a year later. He became part of the Corrections Emergency Response Team (CERT) in 2016. A year later, Justice began working with the Electronic Surveillance Unit to update all of the agency’s cameras in Corrections.
“I’ve always had an interest in technology, so this was something different that I was excited to learn,” he said. “It’s a complex camera system and involved a great deal of work to get everything functioning properly.”
In addition to his regular Corrections and ESU responsibilities, in 2017 Justice began supporting the agency’s Special Operations Unit as a drone and later robot dog operator. During SOU callouts, he flew mini drones as needed in tactical situations.
During the Bank of America attempted heist/hostage situation in Feb. 2024, Sgt. Justice was operating Robbie the robot dog that provided critical information including live images of suspect Sterling Alavache holding a knife to the throat of a bank employee before an SOU sniper shot and killed the suspect.
“That was my most memorable use of the robot dog,” he recalled. “Robbie played a vital role because the guy was crouched down and hiding from the regular bank cameras, but we were able to see him folding and unfolding the knife as he held it to the woman’s neck.”
Promoted to Master Corporal in 2022, Justice also joined the Corrections Shakedown Team for a three-month period before being promoted to Sergeant in 2023. He went back to the Core for about six months to work on another camera project before returning to HQ as part of ATSU.
Working for Cmdr. Fred Mazzotta, Sgt. Justice’s first big assignment was the roll out of body-worn cameras for the agency. At that time, ATSU was also transitioning its drone program from Chinese-manufactured models per an edict from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over security concerns.
Sgt. Justice is also the agency’s primary robot dog operator and is coordinating the Drone as First Responder (DFR) program. It’s one of LCSO’s newest programs and currently DFR drones are located at four precincts along with a fire station and EMS facility. Additionally, he is instrumental in the agency’s new Axon body camera rollout.
In listing the challenges of his role, Sgt. Justice mentioned the ever-changing world of technological advancement.
“Keeping up with all the projects we have in ATSU, especially when every project is a priority can be challenging,” he said. “We’re here to support each unit in the agency. We’ve just trained every CSU member to be a drone pilot, and we now have 68 pilots, plus two new DFR pilots. The rewarding part is we’re sort of R & D for new products and new technology that companies want us to demo. Some of those will help LCSO in the future.”
Next week Sgt. Justice and Capt. Chris Fine will travel to New York City with the robot dog for appearances during the studio portion of the television series On Patrol Live. Justice will demonstrate Robbie’s capabilities.
Away from work, Kevin enjoys lifting weights (he’s trimmed down from 275 pounds when he was a powerlifter to 215 now), spending time with his wife, Melissa, and the couple’s two children ages 13 and 7. Melissa and Kevin were high school sweethearts who married in 2008 and will celebrate their 18th anniversary this weekend.
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18 hours ago
This week, Sheriff Carmine Marceno sits down with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to talk about a shared priority: keeping Florida’s children and seniors safe.
From protecting kids from online predators to safeguarding our elderly from those who would take advantage of them, we know that strong partnerships make our communities safer!
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19 hours ago
𝐓𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐧 & 𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐧' | 𝙲𝙾𝙵𝙵𝙴𝙴 𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙷 𝙲𝙰𝚁𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙴
This Saturday at 9 AM, Sheriff Carmine Marceno sits down with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier for a timely conversation about public safety, the fight against crime, and the powerful partnership between law enforcement and the Attorney General’s Office.
What’s at stake for our communities? Tune in and hear the conversation firsthand. ☕⭐
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1 day ago
“𝐀𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫. 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡, 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞,” 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐟 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐨.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit has made an arrest in connection with the death of a man whose remains were discovered earlier this year in Fort Myers.
The investigation began after LCSO received information regarding a missing person. Following an extensive investigation, skeletal remains were discovered in a clandestine grave behind the Lee County Elections Center in March 2026, and were later positively identified as the missing man.
The Medical Examiner determined the death was a homicide.
During the course of the lengthy investigation, detectives developed probable cause for the arrest of 44-year-old 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨 𝐋𝐞𝐨𝐧-𝐓𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐬 in connection with the homicide.
Leon-Torres faces charges of 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝-𝐝𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.
He has an extensive arrest history, including previous charges for kidnapping, sexual battery, and narcotics-related offenses.
While an arrest has been made, the investigation remains active, and there is still additional work to be completed. Detectives continue to follow leads, process evidence, and work with the State Attorney’s Office to ensure all aspects of the case are thoroughly investigated.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to seeking justice for the victim and his family and will provide additional information as it becomes appropriate to release.
The Lee County Elections Center has no involvement in this investigation.
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2 days ago
Sheriff Carmine Marceno welcomed HCSO Sheriff Chad Chronister to LCSO Headquarters and met with Attorney General James Uthmeier to discuss their respective roles in the ongoing and vital partnership to keep Florida operating at the highest level. The meeting focused on strengthening collaboration among law enforcement leaders, reducing crime, and maintaining a no-nonsense approach to protecting Florida’s communities and holding criminals accountable.
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2 days ago