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Agricultural Commissioner Says More Employees Needed To Process Background Checks

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Ryan Dailey
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Credit Ryan Dailey / WFSUNews
/
The Florida Channel

Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nikki Fried wants the legislature to provide 77 full time employees to help process background checks for gun licensing.

This, after her team did a review of an audit and saw signs of mismanagement.

“We walked in onto the program and your supposed to review the application within 90 days, we were seeing over that. And so just in my short period of time in my administration we’ve been able to streamline the process, make sure that every background check is done for every individual and we’re down to about 68 days for review. And a lot of things we saw was mismanagement of the department," said Fried.

The department came under fire during a former Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam’s administration, after an employee allowed hundreds of background checks to not be conducted. That resulted in 291 concealed-carry licenses being revoked.

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Blaise Gainey is a Multimedia Reporter for WFSU News. Blaise hails from Windermere, Florida. He graduated from The School of Journalism at the Florida A&M University. He formerly worked for The Florida Channel, WTXL-TV, and before graduating interned with WFSU News. He is excited to return to the newsroom. In his spare time he enjoys watching sports, Netflix, outdoor activities and anything involving his daughter.