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This is the sixth installment of a seven-part investigative series into Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony, a man who built his career on lies, violence, and manipulation. The series charts Tony’s misdeeds from the streets of Philadelphia to the most powerful political office in South Florida.
PART SIX
“You know, I didn’t just take an interest in active shooter preparedness, I was part of all the design aspects that happened in Coral Springs. I was awarded commendations for putting together these platforms that helped save 14 of the lives in the school so that was part of why the families supported me early on, months before I was the sheriff.” – Sheriff Gregory Tony on the Brian Mudd radio show.
Greg Tony’s lies span the course of his career and life. And as sheriff, he continues to pepper his past with false information, beefing up his already lengthy imaginary history.
We’ve covered how Tony hid his past to become a Coral Springs police officer. As Sheriff, he has also made several hyperbolic statements to decorate his career in Coral Springs, claims that are easily proven false. During an appearance on the Tangela Burns Sears radio show in 2020, he boasted that he was the first field force and riot commander at the CSPD. A subsequent public records request revealed that “Gregory Tony never held the rank of commander relative to any unit or assignment he held in our department.”
Tony also claimed he put active shooter protocols in place at CSPD, “years in advance, training our officers on the necessary entry tactics, providing them with the necessary tools, and I was awarded the department commendation before the Stoneman Douglas shooting. And this is why when Coral Springs responded they saved 14 lives versus allowing 17 to die. And that’s how I got the call from the governor.”
A public records request regarding the department’s active shooter policy and SWAT SOP found that “for these directives, Accreditation Coordinator/Office of Professional Standards did not seek input from the then-Sgt. Tony.”
Tony has also taken credit for BSO’s successes, some long in place or in motion, even before he became sheriff.
In 2017, aviation consultant and former law enforcement officer Jim Di Giovanna was hired to conduct an independent review of the BSO Aviation Unit. At the time, the helicopters served both law enforcement and medical purposes. Di Giovanna recommended separating these two operations. BSO was in the process of making this necessary change before Greg Tony’s arrival.
However, on a 2022 podcast, Tony detailed a revised history.
“I was like, this is an opportunity for us,” he said. “Here’s what we can do. We can break up these two disciplines, because we have fire rescue and law enforcement, unlike most sheriff’s offices, and we created an aviation unit where fire rescue would not impeding upon the law enforcement operations or law enforcement against fire. Instead, they would operate independently. Instantly, we saw a huge success.”
This was not the only successful idea at BSO that Tony appropriated as his own,
The Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) was BSO’s latest proactive crime-fighting tool. This surveillance unit monitors incidents through strategically placed cameras in schools and public buildings throughout Broward County, enabling the identification of potential threats before they occur.
The opening of the center was a big moment for Tony. He was brought in for changes like this one—big ideas to prevent the next school shooting.
“We learned lessons from Stoneman Douglas,” Tony told the Miami Herald, “One of the pivotal things we were able to witness and look at was the ability to have real-time intelligence when crimes are happening.”
There was only one problem. The RTCC was conceived and under development before Tony’s arrival.
Even Tony’s claims that the much-publicized Research, Development and Training Center (RDTC) was his idea aren’t valid. Plans for the RDTC were developed years before Tony assumed command, and talks were ongoing with the county.
“That’s just a fact, former BSO Major Jonathan Appel told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.” …It was all in the process prior to Greg Tony coming into office.”
In 2022, the Broward State Attorney’s Office announced that Greg Tony had been added to the Brady List. The list, held by prosecutors, consists of law enforcement officials perceived as uncredible. Basically, they can not be trusted to tell the truth, even under oath. This means Tony's testimony on any case would be considered unreliable and harder to prosecute.
Tony, the chief law enforcement officer in Broward County, is even known by the State Attorney’s Office as an unrepentant liar.
The Story Concludes in Part Seven: Several incidents cause Greg Tony new problems and reveal significant flaws in his judgment.
This investigation is built on court records, police reports, interviews with current and former law enforcement officials, public records, and extensive newspaper coverage of Gregory Tony's corruption. Some juvenile records referenced in this series appear to have been sealed or destroyed, raising additional questions about Tony’s past that remain unanswered.
