Highlights
-
In March, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) will present Ross Wolf with both the Reserve Deputy of the Year award for 2025 and a Distinguished Service Medal as he retires from the agency after 34 years.
-
Wolf’s volunteer policing role has allowed him to share real-world insight with students, develop pioneering research in this area and contribute to practices used by law enforcement agencies nationwide.
-
Wolf will continue to apply his decades of OCSO knowledge to education at UCF to help better prepare criminal justice graduates to lead high-impact careers.
For more than three decades, Ross Wolf ’88 ’91MPA ’98EdD has lived a double life. By day, he shapes the minds of criminal justice students and serves as a faculty administrator at UCF. By night and on weekends, he has patrolled Orange County as a sworn deputy sheriff entirely as a volunteer, dedicating about 500 hours per year to the agency.
In March, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) will present him with both the Reserve Deputy of the Year award for 2025 and a Distinguished Service Medal as he retires from the agency after 34 years of service. As reserve chief deputy, Wolf modernized the unit by rewriting OCSO’s reserve policy and establishing international exchange programs with agencies in London and Singapore.
As Wolf approaches this milestone he remains focused on sharing his wealth of knowledge and expertise and his industry connections as interim dean of the UCF College of Community Innovation and Education, professor of criminal justice and associate provost of UCF Downtown.
Taking the Risk
Wolf’s unconventional path began in 1991 when he started as an auxiliary deputy with OCSO. In 1995, he made a bold decision: he took a 50% pay cut to leave his “day job” and become a full-time deputy sheriff. For five years, he served as a patrol officer, field training officer and detective.
In 1999, he made another pivot — joining UCF as a full-time faculty member while remaining a reserve deputy. For the next 25 years, Wolf would maintain both roles simultaneously, eventually rising to reserve chief deputy, the highest-ranking volunteer position in the agency, overseeing more than 70 sworn personnel, while also becoming a tenured professor, department chair, associate dean and associate provost for UCF Downtown.
“Staying current with law enforcement practices made me an effective deputy and allowed me to share accurate, real-world information with students.” — Ross Wolf
“These commitments required significant time, but staying current with law enforcement practices made me an effective deputy and allowed me to share accurate, real-world information with students,” Wolf says.
It also allowed him to identify and address the gap in research on volunteer policing, which has existed longer than professional police departments. For decades, Wolf built a network of international scholars to develop comparative research. He’s also helped develop a framework that is part of an International Association of Chiefs of Police model policy now used by many agencies nationwide.
Training the Next Generation
While leading the reserve unit and conducting groundbreaking research into volunteer policing programs across the United States and internationally, Wolf applied his dual expertise to classroom lectures and created programs that continue to provide students with real-world law enforcement experience.
In 1996, he launched the Law Enforcement Officer Training Corps (LEOTC). Through this initiative, 10 to 15 students each year completed two-semester internships at the OCSO, rotating through specialized units before spending a full semester in their area of greatest interest.
He organized study abroad programs in the United Kingdom that brought 54 UCF students over three years to examine international policing models in a reciprocal exchange. In 2016, 18 British students came to Orlando to ride along with Orange County reserve deputies. Their shifts were underway when the Pulse nightclub shooting occurred. For Zoe Williamson ’21MPA, witnessing officers’ courage and dedication during the tragedy inspired her to complete her master’s degree at UCF and pursue a career in law enforcement.
Wolf’s programs created a pipeline of well-trained officers for agencies across Central Florida, with multiple LEOTC graduates joining the OCSO.
“While everyone knew him as ‘Dr. Wolf,’ I always called him ‘Chief,’” says Stephen Fickey ’11, a criminal justice grad who is now a training deputy with the OCSO. “Having the leader of my reserve unit also be my professor was a unique experience I felt privileged to have.”
Fickey recalled Wolf joking with him about uniform inspections during final exam week.
“Moments like that showed me the most valuable quality in a leader is remembering where you came from,” Fickey says.
Earning Recognition in Service and Scholarship
Wolf’s dual contributions have been recognized with national honors, including the American Police Hall of Fame’s J. Edgar Hoover Memorial Gold Medal, the National Sheriffs’ Association Medal of Merit, and a Presidential Daily Point of Light Award, along with multiple UCF teaching and service awards.
“As reserve chief deputy, [Ross Wolf has] built our unit into one of the best in the nation and agencies from around the world now look to us as a model,” says Orange County Sheriff John Mina. “Ross has provided thousands of volunteer hours, but his impact goes even further,” Mina continues. “Through his work at UCF, he’s trained hundreds of students who’ve gone on to serve in law enforcement, including here at OCSO. He’s represented our agency with professionalism and integrity at every turn, and we’re grateful for his service to the residents and visitors of Orange County.”
As Wolf focuses on academic leadership at UCF, he leaves a lasting legacy out in the field — one that has shaped national standards, hundreds of mentored officers serving across the profession, and proof that bridging practice and scholarship creates lasting impact.
