The Orange County Sheriff’s
Office still honors the memory of Michael Callin 12 years after his death in the line of duty: The motorcycle deputy’s bike is displayed prominently in tribute to him at the agency.
Walk inside the glass-walled lobby of the Orange County Sheriff Office, also known as “the fish bowl,” and you’ll see Deputy First Class Michael A. Callin’s motorcycle, which has been parked there for 12 years.
The bike is cleaned and waxed regularly, part of the agency’s efforts to keep Callin’s memory alive.
Callin, a 26-year old motorcycle deputy, was working a traffic detail on the Interstate 4 entrance ramp at Kirkman Road in August 2006 when a Honda Civic came barreling down the road. Callin stepped onto the ramp to signal the car to stop. The driver, Allan Barahona, 19, sped up instead — plowing his car in the deputy.
Callin died of his injuries the next day at Orlando Regional Medical Center. Barahona, who was driving with a suspended license, was later sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Dave Callin is still pained by the loss of his son. The elder Callin worked in Orange County law enforcement for over 30 years. Nothing in his experience could prepare him for learning that his son would never recover.
Still, he takes solace in the knowledge that Michael Callin stayed true to his heart until his last moments.
“He lived to serve,” Dave Callin said with tears in his eyes. “He had a passion to serve in there, and there have been many stories that have been shared with me about how he has just a heart of service.”
Dave said his son had long been willing to put himself in harm’s way to help others. In 1995, Michael, an Oviedo High School student at the time, was driving down a highway when he witnessed a vehicle that had struck a person mowing a lawn. The victim was trapped underneath the vehicle. Michael and other Good Samaritans pulled the man to safety.
Michael was named student of the month at Oviedo High and given an outstanding citizen’s award by the Seminole County Sheriff ’s Office.
“I think he had a passion and desire to be serving in that area, that may have been the beginning, possibly, of his interest in law enforcement,” Dave Callin said.
A funeral was held for Michael Callin on Aug. 8, 2006. About 3,000 people — mostly law enforcement — attended the service at the First Baptist Church of Orlando.
A year after the funeral, Dave Callin; his wife, Anna; and Michael’s widowed wife, Victoria, decided to try and turn a senseless tragedy into something positive. The result was the Michael Callin Memorial
Scholarship Fund, which provides money to students and police academy recruits who exemplify the qualities of integrity and service that characterized Michael’s life, according to the fund’s website.
“We want to give back to the community and want to be there for other people; other families that go through what we are going through,” Anna Callin said. “Unfortunately, it’s far too often that other families are in the situation that we have been in.”
Since 2006, 127 additional law enforcers have died in Florida according to the Officer Down Memorial Page website.
The fund has awarded $1,000 scholarships to 25 people, with the most recent scholarship this summer going to Steven Rivera from the Criminal Justice Academy of Osceola.
A dozen years after his death, Michael Callin’s sacrifice is still remembered by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. “We will never forget,” OCSO said in an Aug. 2 Facebook post, which included pictures of the deputy and his retired motorcycle.
The office has lost 21 deputies since it began operations in 1845; seven of them have died since Callin’s death. The most recent was Deputy First Class Norman C. Lewis, who died in 2017 in a traffic collision while searching for a murder suspect who authorities say shot and killed Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton.
Earlier this month, Orange County Sheriff’s Office unveiled its newly redesigned memorial honoring fallen deputies, at the Sheriff ’s Office headquarters at 2500 W. Colonial Dr.
“This monument will bring a sense of pride for family members and coworkers, giving them a place where they can sit, reflect, and pay their respects on the end of watch date, or at any time to celebrate the life of their friends and loved ones,” OCSO said in a press release.
For the Callin family, the memorial is a reminder of a promise the agency made them in their time of mourning.
“I was talking to the Sheriff’s Office right after Michael’s funeral and I said, ‘everything they’ve done has been so nice, but when people start to forget about Michael’ — they cut me off and told me they will never forget,” Dave Callin said. “It makes me very proud of who my son is. And what he has done and how he has done it. We’re honored by that.”