Escambia Sheriff Discusses Flock Camera Fallout, Murder Charge, and Vape Shop Burglaries

Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons joined Pensacola's Morning News Tuesday with updates on several active cases, along with his agency's response to a state order that's forcing changes to its license plate reader program.

Flock Cameras

Simmons says Governor Ron DeSantis's order requiring the removal of automated license plate readers from state road rights-of-way is going to hit ECSO's network hard. He says roughly a third of the agency's cameras sit on state roads, and pulling them out will meaningfully weaken a system that depends on being complete to function well. The Florida Department of Transportation gave agencies 30 days to remove the cameras or have state crews do it for them.

Simmons says his cameras haven't been switched off yet and won't be used any less in the meantime — if a crime happens today and a license plate reader can help, his office is going to use it. But he says the agency is actively weighing whether to keep running a smaller, less effective network once the state road cameras come down, or pause the whole program until there's more legal clarity, an approach several other Florida sheriff's offices, including Duval, Volusia, and Seminole counties, have already taken.

Second-Degree Murder Charge

A woman told deputies she shot a man in self-defense during an incident at a Pine Forest Road apartment, but Simmons says the investigation didn't support her claim. Ashanti Brown is now charged with second-degree murder. Simmons says Brown allegedly took a doorbell camera and her cell phone from the scene and discarded them in a ditch in Santa Rosa County — a detail he says undercuts her account, since someone acting in self-defense would typically want that evidence reviewed, not hidden. Investigators are still working to access the data on the discarded devices. Simmons says the charge could be upgraded depending on what they find, though that would likely require evidence the shooting was planned or an ambush.

Vape Shop Burglaries

Deputies arrested three people in connection with five vape shop burglaries reported over the past couple weeks near Nine Mile Road. Simmons says vape shops and marijuana dispensaries have become a recent target locally, with burglars likely assuming the businesses keep cash or product on hand overnight. He says the arrests came after investigators worked the pattern of break-ins.

Other Cases

A 27-year-old man reported being shot in the calf near Wedgwood but refused to tell deputies what happened, leading Simmons to suspect the wound may have been self-inflicted. Simmons also addressed a Cat in the Hat meme circulating online that's being used to signal school threats, with incidents reported in Escambia, Okaloosa, and possibly Santa Rosa counties. He says no threats materialized locally, but his office treats every one seriously given the disruption and fear they can cause, even when they turn out to be a joke.