The design of H∞ reduced order controllers is known to be a non convex optimization problem for which no generic solution exists. In this paper, the use of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for the computation of H∞ static output feedbacks is investigated. Two approaches are tested. In a first part, a probabilistic-type PSO algorithm is defined for the computation of discrete sets of stabilizing static output feedback controllers. This method relies on a technique for random sample generation in a given domain. It is therefore used for computing a suboptimal H∞ static output feedback solution. In a second part, the initial optimization problem is solved by PSO, the decision variables being the feedback gains. Results are compared with standard reduced order problem solvers using the COMPleib benchmark examples and appear to be much than satisfactory, proving the great potential of PSO techniques.