Lt. Gov. Jay Collins ran tactical drills and simulated combat scenarios Tuesday at a Sanford training facility, a stop on his “Florida Backroads” tour as he campaigns for governor.
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The visit underscored a campaign built on Collins’ military background and support for law enforcement. Collins, a retired Green Beret, is a former state senator from Tampa appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis as lieutenant governor last summer. He is far behind U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, whom President Donald Trump has endorsed, ahead of the Aug. 18 Republican primary, however.
Collins toured Decision Tactical, a shooting range and training center in Sanford used by both law enforcement and the public. Dressed in a blue suit with an American flag belt buckle, he shed his jacket to run through drills with the facility’s employees.
Collins said one of his priorities is preparing Florida’s police, fire and emergency workers for emerging threats such as drones and cyberattacks.
“Good people in harm’s way and not having the tools or the time necessary to protect themselves” was what stressed him as a Green Beret and now as lieutenant governor, he said.
The facility, used by law enforcement agencies including Altamonte Springs, Orlando and Sanford, aims to provide police and the general public with a place to practice real-world scenarios with movie-style sets, including a house, a street corner and school hallways, according to the company’s CEO Remo Eyal.
During his visit, Collins led a formation tasked with breaching a door and clearing a house in a drug raid.
Before striking the door, Collins swayed back and forth, deciding which foot to kick with. “It’s now about using a real leg or a rubber foot,” he said, noting the limb he lost due to injuries suffered in combat in Afghanistan.
In the set’s dimly lit living room, the coffee table was staged with burnt incense, rolled-up dollar bills, beer cans and pill bottles. Shouts of “left-high” and “bottom-clear” rang out.
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If elected, Collins said he would push for regionalized, standardized training for first responders that would include using tactical ranges and simulation centers like Decision Tactical.
He stopped short of calling for a mandate, however, noting the gap between cash-strapped rural sheriff’s offices and large urban departments.
But he was skeptical of surveillance technology, such as license plate readers, he said.
It was noted in the event’s campaign advisory that Collins would be speaking about Flock Safety, a company creating automated license plate readers that capture identifying features of passing vehicles to feed databases used by law enforcement agencies. They have spread rapidly across Florida.
Collins said he wasn’t a “big fan” of cameras overall, including those used by Flock, framing the issue as a balance between “individual liberties versus police state.” He said such tools need “guardrails” and that people who misuse them must be held “unequivocally accountable.”
But he did not call for new limits, saying he wanted the issues discussed publicly, so local communities could weigh in before decisions are made. His central worry, he said, was camera expansions gaining momentum.
“Once you start, it never stops, and it keeps expanding and expanding and expanding. That’s what government tends to do,” Collins said. “We don’t want to live in a spy state.”
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