Chief’s Chat #27: Working Together to Stay Florida’s Second Safest City

A safety ranking means little if it doesn’t match how people actually feel while living their lives. We unpack Cape Coral’s recognition as one of Florida’s safest cities by focusing on the daily experience of residents: running errands without fear, walking to the car without worry, and raising families in neighborhoods where people look out for one another. That lived sense of security comes from a clear vision, a mission built on partnership, and values that show up in every interaction.

We take you inside the model that guides our work: be the safest city in Florida, and get there by partnering with the community to deliver the highest level of safety for all. You’ll hear how real conversations shape policy more than surveys do, how doorbell camera clips can be the missing piece in a case timeline, and why solvability rates rise when people feel heard. We also talk about the power of ownership: many of our officers live here, navigate the same roads, visit the same parks, and bring that personal stake to every call for service. It’s “your police department,” not just “the police department.”

We don’t ignore small problems that can grow into big ones. That includes a candid look at risky biking and e‑bike behavior—wheelies in traffic, riding three or four across, and blocking lanes. We outline the plan: educate first, enforce next, and keep kids safe while protecting everyone on the road. Our Community Oriented Policing unit is coordinating with businesses on trespass authority, and we encourage residents to call when they see unsafe behavior so we can address it in the moment. The throughline is simple: early reporting, shared information, and steady service keep fear off the front of people’s minds.

Proud of the progress, focused on the work. If this resonates, subscribe, share with a neighbor, and leave a review to help others find the show. What safety topic should we tackle next?

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:04):
Welcome back to the Cape Copcast.
Today we have Chief's ChatEdition.
What are we talking about today?

SPEAKER_02 (00:10):
Well, a couple of cool things.
Well, one cool thing and one notso cool thing, but it'd be cool
to talk about it.
Um Wallet Hub actually came outand did their ranking of cities.
They do one for economics, theydo one for uh health and
wellness.
They do all kinds of differentones, but they did one for
safety.
And uh once again, we came outas the second safest city in

(00:34):
Florida.
Um Port St.
Lucie was number one, andthey're doing an awesome job,
obviously.
So congratulations to them.

SPEAKER_01 (00:41):
Yeah, hats off to them.

SPEAKER_02 (00:42):
But um, I'm really proud of all of us, not just the
police department, but inconjunction with the community,
it it it really does take bothof us to do that, and that's
what we're gonna talk about.
But uh big, big win.

SPEAKER_01 (00:55):
Yeah, huge.
I think it it takes a lot tokeep a city of this size to uh
as safe a standards as we have.
And I think if we had a guess,people's biggest complaint would
be traffic, which obviously wetake seriously.
But if that's your biggestcomplaint, we're looking pretty
good compared to a lot of thebigger cities in the state and
nation.

SPEAKER_02 (01:14):
Yeah, there every community has some sort of
traffic problem because when youput human beings in
thousand-pound vehicles anddrive around, you're gonna have
some kind of issues.
The other communities, that isstill a problem, but lower
because front of mind isphysical safety, personal
safety.
Do I have to worry about gettingcarjacked at 7-Eleven when I'm

(01:37):
walking out of Publix?
Do I have a legitimate concernthat I'm gonna get
purse-snatched or pushed down ora home invasion?
I mean, th those things dohappen, but that is not a front
of mind concern for people inCape Coral.
And that's really where youjudge safety like that.
So it was a big uh big win forus.

(01:59):
It's kind of in a line of ofgood successes that we've had.
And I did an interview thismorning where they asked about
that, and you know what what doyou attribute that or how how do
you think that happened, or whyis that happening?
And I said it was our vision,mission, and value come to life
or personified.
And for those of you who don'tknow, we have just like any

(02:21):
other corporation, we have avision statement, mission
statement, and value statement.
And for us, our vision, ouroverall goal that we want to do
is we want to be the safest cityin Florida.
We want to be the premier lawenforcement agency in Florida,
we want to be the best, right?
So, what do you use to measurethe best?
The best is the the not numberson a page, but how do you feel

(02:45):
when you're uh experiencing lifein our city?
Do you do you think aboutbecoming a victim when you're
running errands and living yourlife?
And the answer is no, which isgood.
And that that's on our way toachieving that vision.
But a vision has to be umplugged in or put into effect by

(03:06):
a mission, right?
So you got the misty uh idealsof a vision, but you have to
have concrete things that you doto achieve that vision.
And that is your missionstatement.
And ours is right first sentenceright off the bat, partnering
with our community to ensure thehighest level of safety for all,

(03:27):
for everybody.
So you can't solve crimes alone,you can't maintain law and
order, you can't have what wehave with just the police
department.
You can't go wild and then wejust roll around and pick it up
or clean it up.
You have to work together,right?
So we have a very vibrant,awesome community that wants the

(03:47):
same things that we want.
That's that partnership.
Um, if they see something, theysay something, they share video,
they yeah, we've had that a lotlately.

SPEAKER_01 (03:56):
Um, because I think one of the things because we are
a safe community, we've had acouple uh slews of vehicle
burglaries recently becausepeople think it's not gonna
happen to them.
They have a very safeneighborhood, they leave their
car unlocked, and then theybecome a victim of an
opportunity crime.
Well, outside of that, we haveso many neighbors that are on
top of everything.
They're always they're out,they're aware, they're walking,

(04:18):
they're seeing what's going on.
And a lot of people now havering cameras, and we have a
great community that is so quickto provide their video footage,
even if, you know, oh, there waslike a car that passed at this
time, but you guys were askingfor help, they'll send it in.
And that is so helpful to all ofour officers, our detectives,
and it gives us, even if, youknow, nothing happened, it can

(04:40):
give us a timeline of whathappened where, and then we're
able to solve crimes from there.
Our solvability rate on top ofthat has been incredibly great.

SPEAKER_02 (04:50):
It's way over the national average, both in in
violent crime, but in inproperty crime as well.
And you mentioned that thatsharing of information and
coming forward, that doesn'thappen by accident.
People want to help, right?
People love true crime podcasts,they love Netflix, they want to
use the technology at theirfingertips and get involved.

(05:10):
And I give our I will patourselves on the back for that.
We're open to that, right?
And that's what that partnershipis.
Um, both in, hey, help us out,but also in what we do every
day.
And the the interactions that wehave with the community, the
openness that we have, that'swhat cultivates that partnership
where they want to provide.

(05:31):
There's communities that are arereally devoid of that
partnership.
And people still want to help,but if they feel that they they
aren't listened to or there isno partnership, they'll sit on
that information.
And and that doesn't happen hereand and it's intentional.
And that's why we enjoy some ofthe successes that we do.
And um, it's really a greatthing.

(05:52):
I'm super proud of it.

SPEAKER_01 (05:54):
Yeah, I I love it.
It's so so different here.
We have a community that thewhen we go out, we can have
conversations with them.
I don't feel like there's, youknow, it's not intimidation or
anything like that.
They know that we'reapproachable and we're here for
them.
And I think that that that's oneof the things of um a lot of
people call for whatever itmight be.
And I think they know whateverit is, that's a problem that

(06:16):
we're gonna tackle.
Even if it seems like somethingsimple, that's our job.
I think we have a higher levelof community service compared to
a lot of police departments thatand and no shade to them, they
have a lot of things going on,but we are able to take the time
and help people based on evenwhat would be considered like a
lower level problem.

SPEAKER_02 (06:36):
Right.
And I think that's a great pointbecause people know that they
can they can work with us, andwe're not the police department,
we are your police department,and and that's a big
distinction, and people peopleunderstand that, you know, and
you mentioned conversations.
Where does a vision come from?
Right?
Where do you where do I, becauseI'm accountable for it, but it's

(06:59):
all of us, where do I come upwith the vision and the
direction that our giant cruiseship is is sailing on?
Well, that's not just medreaming it up or or coming up
with my ideas.
There's best practices in theprofession, uh, obviously
following the law and thetrends.
Um, but a big component of whereour police department vision

(07:20):
comes from is the community.
And how do you find that?
You can't guess, and it's notjust Facebook comments, it's not
just surveys that you put out,it's having conversations, it's
coffee with a cop, it's stoppingand talking to somebody when
you're in Wawa getting lunch.
It's when somebody sees you andthey're looking and you know
they want to talk to you, weengage them.

(07:41):
What's going on?
How are you?
And then you'll hear themesabout what's important to them,
and that's what goes in andshapes our vision.
And then you come up withpolicies, procedures, training
to actually put that vision intoplay.
And I think what you're seeingwith a 28% drop in crime um the
first half of the year, and thenwith with surveys or with um

(08:05):
data coming out, you know, beingthe second safest city, it's
showing that those actions andwhat we're doing is working.
And it's it's really great.

SPEAKER_01 (08:14):
Yeah, I think another one of those things is
just our our our our officersthat we have, our talent pool
comes a lot from our localcommunity.
So having a local communitythat's supportive to people like
Devin Sears, that's lived herehis whole life, and then he
decides he wants to be a cophere.
That's where you get some ofyour best officers that know
what the area is like, they knowthe culture.

(08:37):
I think culture in any citydepartment is very important,
and then you can have thoseconversations.
You care more because you'rethoroughly invested in exactly
where you live.
And so many people, I would saymost of the officers that work
here live here.

SPEAKER_02 (08:52):
And then I think I was just gonna say that we have
probably the highest percentageof resident police officers.
So when it's your community,that's a level of ownership that
you just cannot manufacture.
We're not an imported force likeyou see in some other larger
major cities where you can A,you can't afford to live there
and you can't, or B, youwouldn't want to.

(09:14):
So you live somewhere else andyou get imported in, do the job.
There's just not the same levelof ownership.
There's the same commitment.
I'm not saying anything aboutthat, but you just cannot
replicate when it's yourcommunity, when you're paying
the same water bills they are,when you're going to publics
just like they are, and you'refighting traffic, you know,
dropping kids off for school.

(09:35):
Everything that they'reexperiencing, we're
experiencing.
It's a shared experience, and itand it goes, it benefits what
we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 (09:43):
Absolutely.
I was kind of laughing because Iwas thinking um there was a guy
that I worked with on patrol,and he would always, you know,
see something and then be like,not in my city, and go pull out,
get them for speeding orwhatever.
But it's just one of thosethings that you have your family
here, you have your kids here,you know, my my kid's a baby,
but when he goes up and grows upand starts driving, I want him

(10:04):
to be safe on the roads.
I want him to be safe in parks.
And that's one of the thingsthat we take measures now to
make sure that it's not justsafe now, but it continues to be
that way, even though we have agrowing city.

SPEAKER_02 (10:15):
Right.
If you're going through it,we're going through it.
So that's just a an unmatchedlevel of ownership that our
people have.
Um, switching gears, uh, areason, another reason why we're
safe and it's a great communityis because we don't let little
things become big problems,right?
And it's easy to say, well,that's just that's small, that's

(10:39):
not that important, we're bignow.
Um, but that's almost concedingto letting a certain level of
crime or quality of life ordisorder or just a pain in the
neck rise up.
And we don't want that.
And one of those issues is I'msure you've seen it, is the
prevalence of, I don't knowwhere this came from, what

(11:00):
influencer started this, but uhwheelie gangs on on bikes,
right?
Where you got four or five kidsriding, it's called riding
abreast.
Um, the law is you're supposedto be single file line, use a
bike lane if applicable, or youuse the road, but they're going
three wide, four wide, purposelynot getting out of the road,
just being between you and I, Imean stupid, right?

(11:23):
Yeah.
Um it just like with crime, it'svery low crime here, but if
you're looking for trouble, youwill find it, right?
Um, we're the third biggeststate in the country, the
seventh largest city within thatstate.
So if there's crime out there,there is crime in here.
If you're looking for a problem,a problem will find you.

(11:47):
The same is with this.
If you're looking to get in acrash, if you're trying to get
hurt, guess what's gonna happen?
You're gonna get in a crash,you're gonna get hurt, and
that's what this is.
Um, so it's really a plea toparents out there.
Know what your kids are doing.
Um, e-bikes, they're all overthe place, e-scooters.

(12:09):
I see them leaving school, andthe majority of them are are
operating safely and doing theright thing.
But there is a small percentagewho are just being dumb and
unsafe and they're gonna getthemselves hurt, number one.
Uh, and any parent, no matterwhat the kids are out doing, if
you hear that your child getshurt, it it's a game changer.

(12:31):
And um it's the headlines areout there.
We've had kids get hurt, we'vehad kids get killed on these,
and they weren't trying to getin a wreck, they weren't trying
to invite trouble.
These kids are, and it's andthey're being kids, they're
figuring it out, you know.
It's okay, it's okay to be dumbwhen you're a kid.
That's part of the deal growingup.

(12:52):
But we need parents to to reallylet their kids know that the A,
don't behave that way, you'regoing to get yourself hurt.
And the second part of that istreating other people the way
they're treating them.
Not getting out of the way orsurrounding a car or really
making people uncomfortable.
It you're gonna get a ticket.

(13:12):
And depending on how aggressiveyou get, you might even find
yourself getting, you know, putin juvenile detention or
something like that.
It's just it's an unnecessary,stupid measure.
So it's a two-fold discussion.
Parents talk to your kids aboutthis, um, and also that this is
our educational componentbecause after education comes

(13:36):
enforcement, and enforcement iscoming.

SPEAKER_01 (13:39):
Yeah, we've seen a lot of things on social media in
the different community groupsthat people are see this,
they're concerned, they want toknow what's going on.
We see the problem, we'readdressing it.
This is the education component,but also um it if you see it,
call us.
That's another one of thoseproblems.
It's not something small, you'renot bothering us.
That's something that we youhave to call us for us to know

(14:01):
that there's a problem in themoment that that way we can go
and address it.

SPEAKER_02 (14:04):
Especially on the roadway.
Um, it's also happening in someparking lots.
Yeah.
So our community-orientedpolicing staff or COP unit is
working with the business ownersto get trespass authority and
give us the ability to get kidsout of there uh that are
misbehaving.
Um it's a balance too, becauseyou don't want to um see a kid

(14:25):
and assume they're doingsomething wrong and just swarm
them.
You have to make sure that thatthey're still able to enjoy a
childhood and go out and rideyour bike.
We want that.
Uh, but we want you to A, besafe for yourself so you're not
getting hurt or killed, um, andalso not harassing or
terrorizing or or ruining theday-to-day experience of our
residents by doing that.

(14:46):
So this is the discussion, thisis the education, and then next
comes the enforcement.

SPEAKER_01 (14:52):
Yep, absolutely.
I think you said it perfectly.
Is there anything else we needto cover today?

SPEAKER_02 (14:56):
I think that's it.
It's been a good week.
Yeah.
Happy Friday.
Happy Friday.
Enjoy your weekend.

SPEAKER_01 (15:01):
Yep.
Stay safe.
Thank you for listening to theCape Copcast, where we dive into
the heart of the Cape CoralPolice Department safety
initiatives, communityrelations, and the insightful
stories of different officersthat make up our department.

SPEAKER_00 (15:12):
Please like and share our podcast.
If you have feedback, you canemail Cape PDPAO at
capecoral.gov and remember tofollow us on social media.
Our handle is at Cape PD on allmajor platforms.
Stay safe, stay cape.