There’s a new deputy sheriff in town – 12 in fact.
Lance Floritto is one of 12 graduates of the Justice Institute of B.C.’s sheriff recruit training program, a four-month comprehensive program that prepares students for a career as a sheriff. While his classmates were deployed across the province to communities as far away as Fort St. John, Floritto will be staying a little closer to home.
Floritto joined the ranks of New Westminster sheriffs about one month ago. Based in New West, he will also be serving court houses in Vancouver, North Vancouver, Richmond, Port Coquitlam and Surrey.
Attorney General and Minister of Justice Suzanne Anton congratulated the 12 new deputy sheriffs on their graduation, in a media release, noting that sheriffs “provide a critical service for every British Columbian who is involved with the courts.”
And, as it turns out, sheriffs do handle a variety of tasks that help keep things at the courthouse running smoothly. In addition to providing courthouse and courtroom security, sheriffs are responsible for jury management, security and management of jails and holding cells inside courthouses and prisoner transports (or escorts, as it’s called) to and from prisons.
Floritto’s journey to become a sheriff is an interesting one. The 49-year-old left a career as a business man in the printing industry, a career he had had since he graduated from Emily Carr art school and design (before it was a university) many years ago. He says, after many sleepless nights worrying about work, he knew he needed a change and becoming a sheriff offered many attractive benefits.
The Record caught up with Floritto recently to talk about his career change, what it’s like to be a sheriff and to answer the question, what does a sheriff actually do?
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Tell me about yourself.
I’m 49 years old, married, father of three, grew up in Kamloops and I’ve been here since ’85. I went to Emily Carr college of art and, to make a long story short, I’ve basically been in graphics and printing ever since. Prior to this I was a manager downtown Vancouver for a long time in that field and basically a business man.
What prompted the career change?
After being in that field for so long, I was hurting for a change and I knew if I didn’t make it at 49 it was likely not going to happen. I wanted to experience a different side of life, basically, and just change it up before it got too late.
What does a sheriff do?
We’re responsible for courthouse security, courtroom security and management, jail, document service and also prisoner transport, escorts as we call them, to and from institutions to the courthouses. So there’s quite a variety. You could do a variety of those in one day or you could do one, and specialize one, and quite a bit more.
What, out of all these things, really attracted you to the job?
The Monday to Friday aspect and also the fact that there is variety. A lot of the other policing, law enforcement careers I looked into didn’t offer that sort of variety. For me as a family man, it works, the Monday to Friday aspect, and the variety is interesting, I think it’s probably offered more variety than other fields.
It’s been three weeks, have you run into anything that you didn’t expect?
Not so much, they really prep you at the Justice Institute. I did sign up to see a different side of life and I’ve been experiencing that, I’ve probably experienced more in the past five months than I have in the past five years, and that’s a great thing. That gives me the opportunity to decide what I want to work towards to specialize in.
You don’t have to decide your specialty right away?
No, as a matter of fact at this point, as recruits, as a new recruit … they’re trying to get me into as many courthouses, and work as many courthouses as possible to experience them all in the Lower Mainland so I can be familiar with them all. That’s terrific.
You’re based in New Westminster?
Yes, technically.
But you service?
All the Lower Mainland, I could technically be called to North Van, like last week I was in Port Coquitlam, Surrey and now I’m here (in New West).
Is there just one sheriff per courthouse?
No, depending on the size of the courthouse there could be from half a dozen to a couple dozen during the day.
What challenges have you experienced so far?
For me, the biggest challenge at 49 is basically the learning curve. There’s a lot to get my head around, and that’s been challenging because I haven’t studied for a long time, I haven’t taken extensive courses for a long time, so here I was sitting around the table with my kids late at night studying, which was interesting because I have teenage daughters. That was the biggest challenge to me, and it still is. Just getting my head around everything and learning my way around and I’ve got to keep the legal aspect in mind and everything else we’ve been trained (to do).
It must be quite different from what you were doing before.
It’s very different, but I like that. Otherwise I’d still be sitting behind a desk doing quotes and ordering paper and staffing print orders. It was always the same thing, year in, year out, whereas this, every day has been different.
What does your family think of your new job?
They’ve been very supportive, they knew I needed a change. I don’t know how much they know about it, I think they’re like a lot of people, they weren’t quite sure what a sheriff was at first. A lot of people are like, ‘We have sheriffs in Canada? What do you guys do?’ So they’re intrigued, they’re learning about it every day. They ask me what I did every day, and they never cared before, so that’s cool. I always have a story every day.
What are some common misconceptions about sheriffs?
I think they confuse it with what they see on TV, and they’re just not quite sure. ‘Do you just stand in court all day? Do you only transfer prisoners?’ So, when you tell them all the other aspects of the job they’re quite surprised. There’s quite a bit more to it.
What’s your favourite part of the job so far?
I like court. It’s very interesting, even some of the things you’d perceive to be as mundane, like family court, can be quite interesting, and sometimes the most contentious. I like the escort duties because you’re also getting out and you’re going to all the institutions and all the court houses. You’re out and about transporting, and it’s nice to get outside because sometimes I just don’t get outside, at least not with what I used to do. Even document service can be interesting because you’re serving warrants, and I was unfamiliar with that in my past life. Jail, of course, is exciting. We have jails in each court facility. We don’t keep them overnight, they’re here for court during the day.
