Saima Plasencia named Ocoee police chief

City Manager Robert Frank announced her appointment to the position is immediate.

By Amy Quesinberry
| 8:33 p.m. April 30, 2021

West Orange Times & Observer
News

Following the retirement of longtime Chief Charlie Brown, Ocoee City Manager Robert Frank has appointed Assistant Police Chief Saima Plasencia to the position of police chief. Three internal candidates applied for the job, and Frank reached out to the Florida Police Chiefs Association to assess each candidate’s executive police experience.

The panel comprised of six active Florida police chiefs and one retired chief forwarded a unanimous recommendation to the city manager for Plasencia.

Plasencia has been acting police chief since February and will assume the role of police chief immediately. She has more than 30 years of law-enforcement experience. She joined the Ocoee Police Department five years ago and previously worked at the Miami-Dade Police Department.

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Amy Quesinberry

Community Editor Amy Quesinberry was born at the old West Orange Memorial Hospital and raised in Winter Garden. Aside from earning her journalism degree from the University of Georgia, she hasn’t strayed too far from her hometown and her three-mile bubble. She grew up reading The Winter Garden Times and knew in the eighth grade she wanted to write for her community newspaper. She has been part of the writing and editing team since 1990.