PALM BAY, Fla. — A Palm Bay police officer is raising fresh concerns about his law enforcement tactics, making it the third city in which the people he’s encountered have called him aggressive.
It’s called into question what his department knew and didn’t know when they extended a job offer to him, since he did not disclose a previous termination for multiple unnecessary use-of-force incidents in South Carolina.
The newest complaints about Sean Rollins stem from an incident in June when a woman was pulled over for driving an uninsured car she didn’t own.
The other officer was prepared to let the woman go, but Rollins stepped in, reminding the officer that if the woman were to get into a crash on her way home, it would be on them.
After the woman became uncooperative as Rollins tried to get her to step out of the car, he smashed the woman’s window, even as the other officer tried to get him to pause and wait for a supervisor. The situation further escalated when the woman put the car into gear as Rollins broke the glass, causing a chase that ended at her house.
The traffic stop happened a few months after Rollins was sued for a traffic stop in Mascotte by now-Councilwoman Robin Hughes. Hughes was pulled over for running a stop sign. Her husband, who had been following behind her, pulled over.
Rollins did not like Hughes’ husband’s reaction when Rollins told him what happened. The situation escalated when the husband refused to keep driving, resulting in his arrest.
Before coming to Florida, Rollins gained notoriety in Columbia, South Carolina, where he hit or tased eight people in five months, according to an investigation by the Charleston Post & Courier.
The paper had been following up on an incident when Rollins shot a grocery store worker after the worker did not comply with his orders during a traffic stop.
It noted that Columbia officers average less than one use-of-force incident each year.
Rollins was cleared by his department of wrongdoing in the shooting, but fired for performance reasons, namely four incidents where the department determined he used excessive force shortly after the newspaper published its investigation into his records.
However, when Rollins applied to his position in Palm Bay in 2023, he said he had not been fired or asked to resign from any position, and only wrote about the shooting when asked about internal investigations.
He characterized his disciplinary history as “general low-level complaints” as “any police officer does” while in the line of duty.
Records show that Rollins left his position for personal reasons and then applied to return. In his second application, he said he had no disciplinary history at any law enforcement agency.
When asked if Palm Bay did any checking of Rollins’ background when they hired him, a spokesman sent the following statement:
“The Palm Bay Police Department conducts thorough background checks on every member of our organization,” Sergeant Vincent Galioto wrote. “This includes speaking with those applicant’s previous employers. We have not and will not lower our hiring standards.”
The agency cleared Rollins of wrongdoing for the June traffic stop.
Rollins’ attorney, Jeffrey Weiss, did not address the officer’s applications in response to WFTV’s questions.
“We deny, and are vigorously defending all allegations contained in the Mascotte case,” Weiss wrote.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2025 Cox Media Group
