Fifty is an important number in Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd’s life this year. In addition to 2022 marking his 50th anniversary at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, on Sept. 16, Marisa and Grady Judd will celebrate 50 years of marriage. For Judd, it was love at first sight. In the summer between his junior […]
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Part 4: Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd Becomes a National Figure
As Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd’s star rose during the 2000s, so did his political cachet. He has spent time in Washington, D.C., at The White House and at local campaign stops with several presidents. Those meetings stretch back to the early 1980s, when President Jimmy Carter came to Polk County to fish and shook […]
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Part 3: Sheriff Grady Judd Has Faced Controversies, Protected Children
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd’s career has had its share of controversies that made him a sometimes polarizing figure. One sticking point with some residents has been his adamant opposition to equipping his deputies or their patrol cars with cameras, saying it’s an invasion of privacy, costs too much, and that most people in the […]
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Part 2: Sheriff Grady Judd Based a Career on ‘Doing What’s Right’
One of Deputy Grady Judd’s early arrests came the night of the sheriff’s office Christmas party in the mid-1970s, when he saved the Baby Jesus.
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Part 1: Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd Marks 50 Years in Law Enforcement
On the sweltering summer evening of July 21, 1972, a tall, skinny, 18-year-old – sporting a mustache because it “made him look older” — walked into the Bartow headquarters of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office on Broadway Avenue and started his first official night shift in the communications office, answering emergency calls for help as […]