About Major Keith Riddick

Keith Riddick was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Thurman and Alice Riddick. He has two older brothers who also call Palatka home. Thurman was, at the time, a career Army soldier, which allowed Riddick to travel the world following his father to various military assignments, before they moved to Palatka, permanently, in 1968. Riddick is married to wife Judy, a legal secretary. Keith and Judy have three children and two grand-children.

Riddick's law enforcement career began in 1980, when he was hired by the Palatka Police Department as a sworn law enforcement dispatcher, before becoming a Patrol Officer. Riddick left the PPD in 1982 and went to work for the University Of Florida Police Department. There he worked as a patrol officer. In 1984 Riddick began his career with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office as a Deputy Sheriff. Riddick's love of "putting the puzzle together" led him along the path of an investigator in the agency. His investigative career started in property crimes, but quickly allowed him to move to his true passion, crime scene investigation. Riddick later tested for, and was awarded, the rank of Sergeant before being appointed Chief of Detectives, carrying the rank of Captain. A rank restructure at the Sheriff's Office resulted in Riddick's current rank of Major.

During Riddick's tenure at the Sheriff's Office, he has taught various investigative and crime scene related topics to in-service training classes, academy recruits, and in local public schools. He sits as the Sheriff's representative on several regional law enforcement committees, to include the Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX) data sharing project and the Regional Domestic Security Task Force. Riddick is the primary Public Information Officer for the Sheriff's Office and acts as their legal liaison with the Florida Sheriff's Association attorneys. During Riddick's career he not only worked the crime scenes of numerous cases, but was the lead detective on what he considers the "case of his career", the Phimmachack murders, a crime that saw the homicidal deaths of five members of one family. Riddick also responded to New York's "ground zero" where he served as a crisis counselor with the National Organization for Victim's Assistance, after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

After his father's retirement, Riddick attended the public schools of Putnam County, graduating with honors from Palatka Central High in 1976. He was awarded an Associate of Science in Criminology from St. Johns River Community College in 1978, before graduating from the St. Augustine Vo-Tech Law Enforcement Academy in 1979. Riddick subsequently continued his education at Flagler College in St. Augustine where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration in 2005, receiving the Hamilton D. Upchurch award for having the second highest grade point average of the graduating class. While completing his Bachelor's degree, Riddick had the distinguished honor of attending, and graduating from, the 222nd Session of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.