Scott Israel

In 2017, his office was criticized for failing to take control in the aftermath of the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting, in which five people were killed and another six were injured, although the suspect was taken into custody within 90 seconds. According to a report issued by the Sheriff's Office, the failure was caused both by leadership issues and problems with communication systems.[11]

Sheriff Israel visits victim Anthony Borges.[12]

In the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Israel came under scrutiny for both the actions of his deputies and his department's failure to act on warning signs about shooter Nikolas Cruz. On the day of the shooting, an armed sheriff's deputy was outside of the school but did not enter. Afterwards Israel criticized the deputy, saying that he should have "went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer".[13]

It was later discovered that there may have been at least two other deputies, that arrived later, who also did not enter the building.[14] Coral Springs police officers who arrived at the scene were surprised to find that the deputies still had not entered the building.[15]

According to Israel, his agency had "been involved in 23 type calls involving the killer in some way, shape or form – or his brother." However, through a public records request, CNN found that the sheriff's department had actually received 45 such calls about Cruz or his brother over the past decade.[16] Israel rejected calls for his resignation, including one from state representative Bill Hager.[17]

On November 12, 2018, at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission's monthly meeting investigating the shooting, Israel admitted that he had changed the Broward Sheriff's Office written policy on active shooters, changing one word in a critical sentence about deputies engaging active shooters from "shall" go in after the shooter, to "may" go in after the shooter. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a commissioner on the panel, admonished Israel, stating that "Words matter, and according to your policy, he did not have to go in". Judd was referring to Scot Peterson, the former Broward Sheriff's Office deputy assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as a school resource officer, who resigned after it was revealed that he had not entered the building to engage the shooter. Peterson had waited outside the building with his gun drawn while shots were being fired inside. Israel's admission that he changed the verbiage of the active shooter policy clashed with his own statements at a news conference nine months earlier, just days after the shooting, when he announced that Peterson was being suspended without pay because "He never went in." At the time of the shooting on February 14, 2018, Israel's re-written active shooter policy in effect on the day of the shooting provided that Peterson did not have to go in, but that information had not been brought to the public light until the commission meeting on November 15.[18][19]

During the commission meeting as Israel was being questioned, another Florida sheriff on the panel brought up that several of Israel's deputies on the scene of the shooting failed to take command, and seemed disengaged, or failed to act at all, driving back and forth outside the school during the shooting, or they were distracted. This eventually led to more disciplinary action against these deputies.[20]