In 2025, Orange County deputies were involved in multiple shootings, including several that resulted in fatalities, according to agency reports and local media coverage. Those incidents do not appear in the county’s publicly reported homicide totals.
Under Florida’s crime reporting system, when police kill someone, even accidentally or unjustifiably, the death is classified differently. Instead of murder or non-negligent manslaughter, it often becomes a justifiable homicide, a category that does not count toward a county’s homicide rate.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), a justifiable homicide is the killing of a felon by a peace officer in the line of duty. Once a prosecutor decides not to file charges, the case is moved from the general homicide list to that special category. If the investigation remains open, it can stay listed as pending classification for years and never re-enter the totals (FDLE Uniform Crime Reports Handbook, Sec. 2.06).
The distinction has major consequences. In 2023, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office reported 61 homicides with an 82 percent clearance rate, far higher than the state average (OCSO Annual Report 2023). None of that year’s deputy-involved killings appear in those figures. FDLE’s statewide data show 70 justifiable homicides by law enforcement officers that same year, deaths effectively invisible to the public (FDLE UCR Summary 2023).
Critics describe the gap as a statistical blind spot that inflates departmental success and distorts the public’s perception of safety.
The issue extends beyond fatal encounters. In 2020, Edenilson Urbina was shot in the leg during a traffic stop by Deputy Bruce Stolk. Prosecutors later charged Stolk with aggravated battery, alleging the shooting was unjustified, but the case was dropped after evidentiary and procedural delays. Urbina survived, yet his case highlights how Florida’s data systems rarely reflect nonfatal shootings either.
Florida’s Sunshine Law guarantees access to government records, but agencies routinely withhold reports and video while cases are under review, citing ongoing investigations under Chapter 119.071. Those reviews can last years, leaving families without answers and the public without data.
In contrast, states such as California and Texas publish every officer-involved shooting, justified or not, in open databases. Florida does not.
Florida’s homicide rate appears to be falling, but the story those numbers tell is incomplete. Until the state counts every life lost or wounded in police encounters, the public’s picture of safety will remain partial, one where some incidents are recorded and others quietly disappear.
Orange County’s Murder “Solve Rate” Is Sky-High. The Data Behind It Isn’t.
