Grady Judd

In 2018, Judd stoked controversy when he tweeted a mugshot of a black inmate who stole baby formula to feed her child. He captioned it "Come on, girl! What were ya thinkin'? Steal baby formula in our county and you get caught". This raised the ire of many on Twitter due to the misconception by many that the suspect was a mother trying to feed her young child. In fact, the suspect had been housed in the Hillsborough County Jail since May 2018 for grand theft when the Polk County Sheriff's Office positively identified her and served a warrant with their charges. The suspect was also wanted in Manatee and Marion counties for the same type of crime.

Judd gained publicity as a sheriff with a "tell it how it is" demeanor. In 2006, when asked why his deputies shot a suspected cop killer 68 times, he responded "That's all the bullets we had."

Grady Judd (born March 10, 1954) is the current sheriff of Polk County, Florida.

Grady Judd was born and raised in Lakeland in 1954. He started working for the Polk County Sheriff's Office in 1972 as a telephone communicator. As the first deputy under the age of 21 in the department's history, he was required to get his father to purchase his ammunition. At the age of 27, he attained the rank of captain, supervising 44 employees, all of whom were older than he. He was elected as the sheriff of Polk County in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. Judd has earned both bachelor's and master's degrees from Rollins College, and has graduated from the FBI National Academy. He has served as an adjunct professor at both the University of South Florida and Florida Southern College.