On Oct 11th, the day after the hurricane hit, Sheriff Reid and 4 deputies traveled to Gulf County, Port St Joe and Mexico Beach, carrying generators, tarps, fuel and water to help the people of that hard hit area. Our deputies have been working hard, ever since, to help the people in that area. We are grateful to have them back home, safely. Please keep the folks affected by hurricane Michael in your thoughts and prayers.

More photos will be posted as we receive them. Click on a photo to begin slideshow,

Please visit Hamilton County Emergency Management’s Website for useful information

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Hagamos nuestra parte para salvar vidas. Quedate en casa, es la mejor decision..

ATTENTION ******** SCAM********ATTENTION Numerous complaints have been received by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office regarding an unknown subject calling individuals within our county, advising that they failed to report for jury duty and now owe a fine to the Clerk of Court. The scammer is advising individuals that they need to purchase a pre-paid card to make the payment. Please be advised -THIS IS A SCAM. If you should receive one of these phone calls, please report it to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office by calling 386-792-2004 or 386-792-1410

HISTORY OF THE OFFICE OF THE SHERIFF The office of Sheriff is one of antiquity. It is the oldest law enforcement office known within the common-law system and it has always been accorded great dignity and high trust. For the most part, the office of Sheriff evolved of necessity. Were it not for laws which require enforcing, there would have been no necessity for the Sheriff. There would have been no need for the development of police administration, criminology, criminalists, etc. This is not the case, however. Man learned quite early that all is not orderly in the universe. All times and all places have generated those who covet the property of their neighbors and who are willing to expropriate this property by any means. As such, man's quest for equity and order gave birth to the office of Sheriff, the history of which begins in the Old Testament and Indeed, there is no honorable law enforcement authority in Anglo-American law so ancient as that of the County Sheriff. And today, as in the past, the County Sheriff is the peace officer entrusted with the maintenance of law and order and the preservation of domestic tranquility. Sheriffs have served and protected the English-speaking peoples for a thousand years. The office of Sheriff and the law enforcement, judicial and correctional functions he performs are more than 1000 years old. The office of Sheriff dates back at least to the reign of Alfred the Great of England, and some scholars even argue that the office of Sheriff was first created during the Roman occupation of England. Around 500 AD, Germanic tribes from Europe (called the Anglo-Saxons) began and invasion of Celtic England which eventually led over the centuries to the consolidation of Anglo-Saxon England as a unified kingdom under Alfred the Great late in the 9th Century. Alfred divided England into geographic units called "shires," or countries. In 1066, William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxon and instituted his own Norman government in England. Both under the Anglo Saxons and under the Normans, the King of England appointed a representative called a "reeve" to act on behalf of the king in each shire or county. The "shire-reeve" or King's representative in each county became the "Sheriff" as the English language changed over the years. The shire-reeve or Sheriff was the chief law enforcement officer of each county in the year 1000 AD. Florida's first constitution, adopted in March 1845 when Florida joined the Union, created the office of Sheriff as an elected official in each county. The concepts of "county" and "Sheriff" were essentially the same as they had been during the previous 900 years of English legal history. Because of the English heritage of the American colonies, the new United States adopted the English law and legal institutions as its own. Florida's constitution has been revised several times through the years, but the constitutional provisions establishing the office of the Sheriff remains the same as it was in 1845, which, in turn, is strikingly similar to the functioning of the office of Sheriff at the time of Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror. The major difference, of course, is that the Kings of England appointed their Sheriffs. From the earliest times in America, our Sheriffs have been elected by the people to serve as the principal law enforcement officer of each county. Clearly , the Sheriff is the only viable officer remaining of the ancient offices, and his contemporary responsibility as conservator of the peace has been influenced greatly by modern society. As the crossbow gave way to the primitive flintlock which, in turn, gave way to the sixgun, etc., ad infinitum, the Sheriff is not unaccustomed to change. But now, perhaps more than ever before in history, law enforcement is faced with complex, moving, rapid changes in methodology, technology and social attitudes. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his THE VALUE OF CONSTITUTIONS, "the office of Sheriff is the most important of all the executive offices of the county." After more than a millennium of existence, the Sheriff continues to function as the great man in his county, ready for whatever each new day may bring to challenge the domestic tranquility of each county in America.