Hometown Shero: JSO Chief Deloris Patterson O’Neal promoted to agency’s Director of Services

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —

It’s another historic moment at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

JSO Chief Deloris Patterson O’Neal has stepped into a new role as Director of Services following a promotion by Sheriff Mike Williams.

She is the first African-American woman in the agency’s history to hold both titles.

Action News Jax anchor John Bachman sat down with O’Neal back in Feb. 2020 to talk about her unconventional―and awe-inspiring―journey to the top of the sheriff’s office.

For O’Neal, adversity began at the beginning of her story. She was raised in one of the toughest neighborhoods Jacksonville has to offer, and after her mother died when she was just 5 years old, she ended up in foster care.

But O’Neal was never defined by her circumstances. Despite the odds, she graduated from Ribault High School, attended the University of North Florida and landed a job in corporate America.

But after two years O’Neal said the streets called her back ― her streets. So she became a police officer. That was almost 24 years ago.

O’Neal’s first three years as an officer were spent patrolling Jacksonville’s New Town, Baldwin, and Northwest communities. Over the next several years she would be promoted often, eventually coming back to Northwest Jacksonville as a JSO Commander.

“I never set out to be the first African American female. I just really wanted wherever I went to just be the best at what I could do,” O’Neal told John Bachman.

O’Neal says her story is proof that no matter where you start in life, you can choose who you want to be.

When Action News Jax asked O’Neal in early 2020 if she’d consider a run for sheriff in 2023, she offered this playful response: “I am going to be the sheriff of my residents. I am going to be the sheriff of my husband ―and I will allow him to be my undersheriff.”

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