He is known as “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” but Sheriff Grady Judd, of Polk County, Florida, said he is “tougher on himself” than anyone he has ever arrested.
“I hold myself to a higher standard,” Judd said in a recent interview at the Polk County Jail. “I always said that I never wanted to do anything that would embarrass my Mama, my wife, or my children.”
sheriff has garnered national attention in television interviews where he has made colorful and memorable quotes that can now be found on the backs of t-shirts at online shops.
re was also a YouTube rap video titled “Ducking Grady”, in which the sheriff made an appearance.
video was written, performed, and directed by Cedric Wilson, a Lakeland resident who was once a regular at Sheriff Judd’s jail. He is now reformed and has turned into a successful business owner.
Wilson told a Tampa television station that he made the 2019 video to help “kids stay out of trouble.”
Judd was in favor of the video, because he said it would help “strengthen the relationship between the sheriff’s office and the community.”
Judd has lived in the community he serves all of his life.
“This community has been good to me, and I will continue to be good to it. After all, they [voters] keep me here for a reason,” Judd said.
He is famous for insightful press conferences where he proudly “outs” criminals for their behaviors that land them in the confines of his accommodations–the Polk County Jail, or what Judd refers to as “our Crossbar Hotel.”
“I’m sure if you walk into that jail and ask what they think of me you will get some who just hate me,” he said. “However, there are some that will tell you that at least I’m a fair person.”
Judd is particularly concerned about crimes “against children, the infirm, and the elderly.”
Polk County is famous for catching pedophiles and cracking human trafficking cases.
Judd has a cyber team that works to lure predators and then catches them before they can “hurt anyone else.”
“Don’t bring that to Polk County,” he warned. “We will catch you and you will go to jail–I look for predators every day.”
Judd explained that even though Polk County is known for catching pedophiles, they continue to come because the “need to do what they do is stronger than getting caught.”
Judd is entering his 49th year of working in law enforcement and said, “it was all I ever wanted to do.”
In 1958, then 4-year-old Grady Judd was always fascinated with red flashing lights, he recalled.
“Since then, red lights have been replaced with blue ones, in my field,” he said as he chuckled remembering the event. “But I remember as a little child those red lights would just reel me in.”
Judd said his mother recognized the fascination he had with everything police and bought him a small police uniform. As the years went by he grew out of the little uniform, but just replaced it with bigger ones as he got older, he said.
68-year-old sheriff said that looking back he has lived a “good life” and credits his character, and the “man he is today,” to his upbringing.
“I was raised in the church,” he recalled. “We were sometimes the first to arrive at the church and the last ones to leave.”
Judd’s father was a minister of music, and his mother was a stay-at-home mother—because “that is the way his father wanted it.”
“My father worked two jobs to make sure my mother didn’t have to work and could stay home to look after the home and the family.”
Judd home, he said, did not have air conditioning and the telephone was set up on a party-line system. He described his family’s economic status as “meager” and says it keeps him “humble.”
Judd credits his father’s example for his own work ethic. He began his law enforcement career as a dispatcher, but the more he worked at the station, the more he wanted to be a police officer.
“I wanted to be out there on the road with those guys,” he said. “But I knew I had to work hard to prove myself.”
However, as the saying goes, behind every successful man there is a woman; it is a statement that Judd agrees with, as he has been married to his “high school sweetheart,” Marisa, since they were 18 years old.
“People didn’t give us much hope getting married at such a young age,” he said. “But we have made it last because we support one another; she is my biggest cheerleader and my biggest critic.”
“She took over where Mom and Dad left off,” he said laughing. “We have an immense amount of trust in one another–and, with that trust, the world just unfolded in front of me.”
Along with a new marriage, a new career emerged as Judd began to realize his life-long dream of being a law enforcement officer. Judd the dispatcher moved on to the academy to realize his dream of becoming a sheriff’s deputy.
Attending the academy didn’t pay the bills, he said. After classes Judd went to work at the sheriff’s office and continued his job as a dispatcher working from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m. He said he would only sleep three or four hours a day.
“I was a hard worker,” he said. “I knew eventually it would pay off.”
After he graduated from the academy, he said the police department “put him on the road” in a patrol car at the tender age of 19.
He recalled that the department only provided his pants, shirt, and gun belt. He had to purchase everything else.
But there was one problem. gun laws did not allow him to buy a firearm. Judd had to be 21 years of age according to federal law.
“My father had to buy my gun and ammunition,” he said. “I was not 21 yet. I was old enough to work for the sheriff’s office, carry the gun and even fire it, I just couldn’t buy it.”
Judd rapidly flew up the ranks and became a corporal at the age of 22, a sergeant by 23, a lieutenant at 25, a captain when he was 27, and a major at 34.
He ran for a vacated sheriff seat in 2004 and more than half of voters in the county elected him and he has been there ever since.
Entering his 18th year as sheriff of Polk County, Judd has been elected by more than 95 percent of the vote in 2008, 2012, 2016, and most recently 2020.
His resume consists of bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and he has graduated from the FBI National Academy.
For 23 years he has taught at both the University of South Florida and Florida Southern College.
Judd said he has been asked to run for higher office, but says he doesn’t “have the patience for the legislative process.”
“I could’ve won; all the polls indicated that, but as I’ve said in the past, just let me be sheriff,” he said.
Because Judd was raised in the church, he has maintained his faith over the years and allowed it to be his “guiding light.”
Behind the badge, there is a soft side to Judd.
He said he cannot fathom the idea of some child waking up on Christmas Day without a gift from their mother; especially if she is in his jail.
This prompted Judd to begin a charity program, funded by donors, that benefits members of the community.
“I went into the area of the jail where the females are kept and ask them if they have children at home,” Judd said. “We get their names, sizes and ask a little about them. n we go out and shop for that child.”
Judd said often the same officer who arrested the mother of the children is the one who returns to the home bearing Christmas gifts.
“We always tell the kids, when we deliver the gifts, that the gift is from their mother. We say, your Mama wanted you to have this.”
same charity will also fund other things.
If a child has their bike stolen, the charity will buy them a new one, he said.
It also funds the toys that deputies carry in their patrol cars.
“Sometimes we go out to domestic situations and if the child is upset, or traumatized, the deputy will pull out a toy in order to help soothe the child and establish trust.”
Judd explained that all of these efforts go into relationship building with the community and these ideas have “never been needed more than today.”
“When rioters were burning down Portland and other cities, and when everyone wanted to defund the police, we didn’t have that in Polk County,” he said.
“Our citizens were building us up. y put their arms around us. I would drive into the parking lot of the jail and there would be signs placed all around the property with messages of support.”
Judd said he ends his day praying for the deputies working at night to return to their families safe.
“n I ask myself, what can I do to help people?”
Judd said he has worked to make his community strong and boasts of a 44-year low crime rate. He credits that to people in the county taking responsibility for watching after one another.
“I have always known what I was called to do. I know this is where God wants me to be.”
Pezou : Florida Sheriff Grady Judd: Man Behind the Badge