DeSantis woos police who lose jobs over vaccine mandates, dangles $5k bonuses to move to Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) said Sunday that his state is "actively working to recruit out of state law enforcement" as some lose their jobs due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

DeSantis told Maria Bartiromo on "Sunday Morning Futures" that he's hoping to sign legislation in the next legislative session that will give a $5,000 bonus to out-of-state law enforcement officials who relocate to Florida.

"In Florida, not only are we going to want to protect the law enforcement and all the jobs, we're actually actively working to recruit out-of-state law enforcement because we do have needs in our police and our sheriffs' departments," DeSantis said.

"So, in the next legislative session, I'm going to hopefully sign legislation that gives a $5,000 bonus to any out-of-state law enforcement that relocates in Florida. So, NYPD, Minneapolis, Seattle — if you're not being treated well, we'll treat you better here. You can fill important needs for us, and we'll compensate you as a result."

DeSantis' comments follow Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police First Vice President Michael Mette's rebuke last week of Mayor Lori Lightfoot's city employee vaccine mandate, as he encouraged officers to not give in, Fox News reported.

What President Biden's vaccine mandate "will do on a practical level, in addition to being unconstitutional, in addition to ... taking away people's personal choices, is it will wreak havoc in the economy," said DeSantis, "because even if a small percentage of these folks end up losing their jobs or voluntarily walking away, you're going to have huge disruptions in medical, in logistics, in law enforcement.

"So in Florida our policy's very clear. We're going to have a special session, and we're going to say nobody should lose their job based off these injections."