Resisting Officer in Pinellas County, Florida

Resisting officer charges in Pinellas County result in conviction at unusually high rates compared to statewide patterns. Nearly 78 percent of defendants are found guilty, while just 1.4 percent see charges dismissed—a half-percentage-point below the state average of 1.9 percent. The withheld adjudication rate of 15.6 percent slightly exceeds the statewide average of 14.5 percent, meaning a meaningful share of defendants avoid formal conviction records despite guilt findings. Diversion—which allows defendants to sidestep conviction through program completion—occurs in only 3.8 percent of cases, trailing the state rate of 4.8 percent. Taken together, these outcomes suggest the Pinellas State Attorney's office pursues resisting officer cases aggressively and successfully.

Among those convicted, confinement is common. Nearly 55 percent serve jail time, with a median sentence of 64 days, though the average stretches to 190 days due to longer outlier sentences. Prison incarceration occurs in 3.5 percent of cases. Probation supervision follows in most convictions, averaging 506 days. The average fine is modest at $174. Only a small fraction of defendants—4.3 percent combined—were represented by private counsel or public defenders, suggesting either high self-representation rates or incomplete reporting in the dataset.