October 20, 2025 • 19 mins
What happens after a serious, or even deadly crash? How do investigators determine who's at fault, what caused the tragedy, and whether criminal charges should be filed? In this episode of the Cape CopCast, Cape Coral Police Department Traffic Homicide Investigators George Schwigk and Stephen Leonard pull back the curtain on their specialized world where mathematics, physics, and detective work combine to solve complex crash puzzles.
These officers explain the tedious and sometimes heartbreaking process of reconstructing crashes. They reveal how speed rarely acts alone in causing fatal crashes - it's typically combined with other factors like impairment, or inattentiveness. The investigators share why solving hit-and-run cases is even more rewarding, as they track down drivers who attempt to escape accountability only to face much more severe consequences than if they had remained at the scene.
The conversation shifts to cutting-edge technology transforming police work, particularly the department's UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) program. These aerial tools provide critical bird's-eye perspectives of crash scenes, help locate missing persons, and enhance security at public events.
THI Schwigk & THI Leonard also discuss Cape Coral's unique traffic challenges: the blend of year-round residents, seasonal visitors, and the proliferation of electric bikes and scooters creating new safety concerns. They provide essential advice about which vehicles are street legal and warn that standard bicycle helmets aren't designed for the speeds many electric bikes can achieve. Their message resonates clearly: through a combination of enforcement, education, and individual responsibility, we can all contribute to the ultimate goal of zero traffic fatalities in our community.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome back to the Cape Copcast.
I'm Officer Mercedes Simonswith the Public Affairs Office,
and today we have two specialguests and I'll let you guys
introduce yourselves.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm George Schwick.
I'm a traffic homicideinvestigator with the Cape Coral
Police Department, as everyonedoes.
I started off in patrol Most ofit was on nights and then I
kind of took an interest intraffic crashes and took a bunch
of classes and kind of gotselected for the Traffic
Homicide Unit.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Awesome.
So how many years do you haveon total with the?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
police department.
I started in 2018, so I'msupposed to be good at math here
.
Seven, yeah, about seven.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
My name is Steven Leonard.
I am also in the TrafficHomicide Unit.
I have been with CAPE now swornalmost nine years.
I've been in THI, which is theshort for Traffic Homicide
Investigations three and a halfyears now.
Before that I was on patrol onnights my whole career.
I enjoyed math.
It wasn't my best subject but Ienjoyed it enough to take on
(01:05):
this challenge.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It's similar to engineering and definitely a
challenge, but I enjoy it so,speaking of math, what all goes
into one of your thiinvestigations?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
we get called out if there's a fatality or injuries
that are likely could result ina fatality.
Every crash, crash, every caseis different.
Not all of them actuallyrequire math, but sometimes you
can use math to figure out someunknowns that you don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It doesn't always work out, depending on the
dynamics of the crash, dependingon the speed.
It depends on a lot.
But when you can do it it issatisfying, when it all works
together and kind of completesthe case.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So would you say that speed is the most frequent
answer for why a crash resultedin a fatality?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I think they kind of go hand in hand.
Sometimes with multiple.
It could be speed, it could belack of seat belts, not wearing
restraint device, it could beinattentiveness or impairment.
It all is very dependent on thecrash, but speed can play a
factor.
For sure.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Speed impairment and safety, like restraints, stuff
like that would probably lead tofatal injuries.
Stuff like that more than leadto fatal injuries.
Stuff like that more thananything else.
Unless it's a medic, sometimesthere's a medical issue that
happened which causes the crash,but that's kind of different.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Out of the cases resulting in an arrest, what are
some of the most interestingcases that you've had that
you're the most proud of, thatyou've worked in?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
cases that you've had that you're the most proud of,
that you've worked.
Hit and runs are definitelysatisfying to me because
obviously if somebody's leavingthe scene, they're most likely
hiding something, whetherthey're impaired at the time of
the crash or they have someissue with a driver's license or
criminal history that they'reconcerned about.
Whatever the case may be, whenyou can locate them and get
(03:05):
justice for the other involvedparties especially when we get
called out there's injuriesinvolved and it's typically a
serious injury where theirlife's been forever changed
because of the injury.
So when you can find the personand provide justice to them,
it's definitely rewarding.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
A lot of times we figure out who it is which I
don't know, that we have anythat are outstanding where it's
a hit and run with an unknown ofanything and we aren't able to
figure out who it is, and a lotof times, people that are that
leave the scene.
Maybe they're not even at faultfor the crash, but the fact
(03:45):
that they leave the scene.
Maybe they're not even at faultfor the crash, but the fact
that they leave the scene and itcaused a fatality and they did
not stop to report it orsomething like that.
Now it's a big felony.
That's 10 plus years in prisonif you get convicted, whereas
maybe you're not even at faultfor the crash or maybe you just
get a ticket for the crash,depending on on the
circumstances even if you are atfault and it's just a generic
(04:10):
fatality, there's no criminalaspect to it.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I don't say generic fatality out of like lightly,
but there's no other aggravatingcircumstances.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
It's could be a year suspension on your driver's
license and a thousand dollarfine, exactly so like for the
people that don't have adriver's license or their
driver's license, than athousand dollar fine.
Exactly so, like for the peoplethat don't have a driver's
license or their driver'slicense is suspended if they
don't stop and stay at the crash.
Your consequences are going tobe exponential, comparatively.
And you guys have a pretty goodsolve rate.
So far as what you do in thecases that you go through to
(04:40):
really try to figure out who didit, what happened and what all
the factors were, and all thatkind of ends up being very
interesting just how all thatplays out with your
investigation and math andhaving witnesses and video
cameras, and there are just somany pieces that go into that
puzzle for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, witnesses that stick around after crashes help
us tremendously becauseobviously we're responding after
the fact, so we have to rely onvideo witness testimony
evidence we gather on scene tobuild a case.
But when citizens take a fewminutes out of their time to
stick around and sometimes itturns into a little more than a
few minutes by the time we getthere but when they do, it helps
(05:19):
us out tremendously because itgoes into identifying parties
involved in the cases that muchfaster and sometimes they're key
witnesses for putting somebodybehind the wheel or seeing a
vehicle description, whateverthe case may be.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
They're there before officers are there so they can
fill in the blanks.
I can think of certain crasheswhere we're looking at the scene
, at the scene evidence, andwe're like wait, this shouldn't
be here, like why is this?
I'm thinking of a specific onemotorcycle, one that you had,
and it's like why is thismotorcycle here?
Did someone move this?
But all the officers?
(05:56):
No, no one moved it.
We find a witness later andthey're like oh yeah, we moved
the bike over here.
Like oh well, we knew it wasmoved, but the witnesses that
are there help fill in thoseblanks of why stuff is the way
it is.
Witnesses are key.
That's what's helpful On anycrash.
If witnesses stick around, Ilike to thank them and be like,
hey, thank you for stickingaround, Because a lot of people
they just see the crash, they'relike, oh man, that's real bad,
(06:18):
and then they just keep ondriving and it's like maybe
you're the one that saw the keypiece of evidence or saw
something that is crucial to theinvestigation that could help
us out.
I mean, sometimes we can trackdown witnesses after the fact
which we have done.
It's not illegal.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It just sucks yeah they're not doing anything wrong
.
It just definitely helps us.
We love our firefighters, butif they tell you to leave before
we get there, please stickaround.
And that's for every accident,beyond injury, hopefully, but
especially when there's Honestlyany incident, if you happen to
see it, you're being there andproviding that information helps
(06:54):
tremendously in anyinvestigation.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And with crashes.
Sometimes they'll tell they'lltry to get people to.
Maybe if their car stopped inthe middle of the road, maybe
that's causing another issue.
So maybe they're trying to makeyou move or leave because of
where you're at.
But if you can stick around thearea, maybe pull into a nearby
parking lot, pull over to a safearea so that you're not in the
(07:16):
way.
Sometimes that's another thing.
With, like with firefighters,they don't want too many people
in their way while they'retrying to help save someone's
life.
So they'll probably yell atpeople to get out of here.
We don't need you in the way,but they're they're trying to do
their job.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So definitely, just like you guys.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So we have THIs and then we have our drone program,
which you guys are both prettywell integrated into the drone
program.
You're a drone instructor.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
He is.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I know this kind of came into play what like a year
and a half ago now.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But you guys as the traffic homicide investigators.
It was kind of the place thatmade sense for you guys to have
and train with the UAVs.
The reason I guess what we usethem for is even before we had
drones, we used 3D scanners,like 3D scan technology, to
document our scenes with, whichis really good technology to use
, but with the drones, what theycould do for us is it can
provide an aerial, like atop-down view of a scene it's
using photos to create a 3Dimage of a scene, so you can 3D
scan with them as well.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But you get a different perspective of fills
and the voids from what we scanfrom the ground.
Because an aerial perspectivein crash investigation is
amazing because you can seethings that you can't see and
you're just standing over top ofit.
You get an aerial bird's-eyeview and it really helps paint
the picture of where vehiclesmove throughout the crash.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And that can be included in the case as part of
the evidence that if it goes tocourt or something like that,
the jury can see like a nicetop-down view of what the scene
was like.
And as they come out with newertechnology, we need to make
sure we're keeping up with thatand the newer technology has
better capabilities.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
How does it change from like a THI investigation
using drones to patrolsinvestigations?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So patrol uses more basically what we previously
call out a suspect for activeinvestigations, active felony
investigations or locatingpeople missing people, which
happens every day, seems like.
So you get that bird's eye view.
You can use thermal imagingwhich the new ones will have
(09:30):
even world's better thermalimaging capabilities but it
gives you the ability to respondimmediately and send up a UAV
to try and locate somebody assoon as possible, without having
to call out a helicopter.
It's a fraction of the cost tooperate, charging batteries and
swap an amount if you need to,versus having to fly back to
(09:51):
refuel.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
And we're not replacing what they do.
What the aviation unit doesdoes it's just sometimes, if
it's, like you said, weather Idon't know if you mentioned that
, but weather, yeah, maybe it'sraining somewhere else in the
county and that would preventthem from coming, but over here
in north cape coral or something, it's not.
The weather's fine.
We can launch from like rightnearby, versus having to fly to
(10:15):
where the scene is.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, I think it's also a huge asset in missing
persons cases because we have somuch water here, especially if,
driving around town, you'llthink, oh, I can just get from
this street to this street, butreally there's a canal in the
middle and you have to go allthe way around.
But the drones have the abilityto go over water all the way
around.
But the drones have the abilityto go over water, so you can
(10:36):
see very quickly in a small area, things that you probably
wouldn't be able to get to asfast from a vehicle, let alone
having the aerial view.
Absolutely so when we put up adrone at an event like Red White
and Boom what exactly are youlooking for?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It's really just security.
I mean just to be up in theevent something happens and be
ready to go.
It's just a better vantagepoint than officers on the
ground.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
It just gives us a better ability to provide that
much more safety and security tothe event itself and the public
that are there attending.
Like I said, you can scan backand forth for things that seem
out of place, or if somethinggets called in over the radio,
you can hone in on that area andthere might not be responding
(11:21):
officers there yet, so you cankind of get an eye of what's
going on to let the otherofficers know or, if the officer
is involved in something, giveout a description of what's
going on.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
There's always people that get lost or get separated
from the right medical callsyeah well, I know we had one
little girl that went missingand I think they said she was
wearing a pink shirt with bluejean shorts.
So when an officer is justlooking in a crowd, you can only
see directly who's in front ofyou versus you.
Guys can go up above and thenlook down and tell an exact
(11:55):
location, potentially of wheresomeone would be, which luckily
they were found very quickly.
We didn't have to go to evasivemaneuvers to try to find them,
but we could.
I think that's one of thosesituations where especially
having you guys.
There is absolutely essential.
How many call outs do you guysusually have?
I know you track those statsper year.
How many outs do you guysusually have?
(12:15):
I know you track those statsper year.
How many times do you guys getutilized?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
There has been an increase over the last few years
, unfortunately, but I would sayin the fifties, the last few
years and hovering around the 20fatalities a year.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Some years are more than others, but we do seem to
be generally increasing over thelast few years.
I just have an interestingblend of drivers down here.
You have people that live herefull time and then you have
people that are retired and somefolks aren't in a hurry to go
anywhere and then other folksare in a hurry to get to work,
(12:51):
to live their daily lives,whatever the case may be, and
they don't always blend welltogether.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
We also have an increase in bicycles, electric
bicycles, electric scooters.
We don't always have justvehicle versus vehicle.
With more, greater population,we have more pedestrian traffic
that maybe there wasn't in theyears past.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Especially the electric bikes and vehicles have
gotten much faster over theyears and more common.
You can get somewhere a lotquicker and don't have to pedal
your own bike, or you can push abutton and get yourself where
you need to go.
But not all of them are streetlegal or the right class of
bicycle.
Versus electric motorcycle perse, they go over 28 miles an
(13:37):
hour.
Basically, it's not an electricbike bicycle and they are
technically not allowed to be onthe road or on the sidewalk, or
on the sidewalk.
So yeah right, they're notstreet legal.
It's no different than ridingan atv or side by side.
That's not street legal.
Down the road, same thing onthose electric dirt bike
(13:58):
vehicles that can go over 28miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, I think that's.
One really important thing forpeople is if you buy one of the
electric vehicles or golf cartsor whatever, just know your law,
because I think what, like 95%of Cape Coral, you can't have a
golf cart unless it's registered.
We don't have golf cart zonesin neighborhoods.
That's not a thing.
If you're 16 years old andyou're driving mom and dad's
(14:24):
golf cart down the street andit's not a registered motor
vehicle, you don't have alicense.
That's technically a criminaloffense and I don't think people
realize that when they lettheir kids drive around, correct
?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, definitely do your research.
Think people realize that whenthey let their kids drive around
, correct?
Yeah, definitely do yourresearch.
And even some of the electricbikes that go up to 28 miles an
hour, the standard bike helmetis not designed to get into a
crash god forbid at 28 miles anhour.
So if you're going to be ridingsome of the class 2 or class 3
bicycles, I would definitelyrecommend getting a more secure
(14:55):
dot helmet.
They're much safer, becausewe've seen crashes with bicycles
where people had bicyclehelmets on, but they were going
20 miles an hour and the bikehelmet's not going to do what
it's designed to do when you'regoing that fast.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
No, have you seen an increase in crashes for the
e-bikes and things like that?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
just because there's not there, they exist now.
Yeah, mostly it's.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I think just most of our bicycle crashes now are
turning out to be electrifiedbicycles, I think, just because
they're more and more common,they're more affordable, they're
becoming more and moremainstream, so they are becoming
more prevalent.
But they do increase the speedthat you can go on it, which is
great, but you just have to doit safely.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, and I think people probably don't see them
coming either, especially ifthey choose to ride on the
sidewalk.
They travel so fast.
The average human person overthe age of what like 25 is not
used to seeing electric bicycles.
They're used to seeing thespeed of an average bicycle,
which is what, like I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
12 8 to 12, yeah, 8 to 12, and now it's 28 more or
less take an extra look whenyou're coming up to
intersections to make surethere's no motorcycles or
bicycles coming from eitherdirection, because I know we
have a lot of medians that youcan drive straight across when
(16:17):
you make that turn.
Make sure obviously there's nobikes.
Because they are smallerobjects you don't see them as
easily, but unfortunately wehave a lot of vehicles that pull
out in front of them and theysay they never saw them and
obviously that's why the crashoccurred.
But just take an extra secondor two to look for those smaller
objects and then savesomebody's life definitely.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
The goal is always to have zero fatalities.
That's the goal.
That's why we send out so manyofficers onto the street to to
run traffic operations andthings like that.
You just had one the other dayand you guys had hundreds a few
hundred stops and, yeah, 150, Ithink, something like somewhere
around there yeah, with hundredsand hundreds of citations and
(16:59):
that's just.
You could sit there and writethem all day, which obviously
you guys did.
But sometimes it feels like itdoesn't make a dent just because
we only have so many officerswith so much time to sit there
and write tickets.
But that's where everybody hasto do their part and make sure
that you drive safe and youdrive safe and you know, look
(17:20):
for the pedestrians and thebicycles so that there are less
accidents.
If everyone drove cautiously,there would be no accidents.
But it's also your job to be adefensive driver and try to
prevent those as well.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Absolutely Everybody has an obligation to basically
drive your vehicle in a way toavoid causing damage or injury
to anybody else, whether it'syour fault or not.
Some road rage can occur, buttry to just let it not bother
you and move on with your day,so that way nothing else
(17:55):
advances and turns into more ofan issue down the road, with
aggressive driving or whateverthe case may be.
If somebody's driving that bad,call it in and let us take care
of it.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Exactly.
We're better trained to handlesituations like that than the
average person.
It's not for you to handle.
It's not for you to say, hey,you didn't stop at that stop
sign, let the police handle it.
Call, you can always reportthat we have.
Hey, we need increased patrolsin my neighborhood in the
morning because people arespeeding or not stopping at the
stop sign.
(18:27):
I'm sure we could talk all day.
Well, we are so thankful foreverything that you guys do.
There are a lot of reallycrucial investigations,
especially those involvingfatalities, that have to be
handled with extreme sensitivityand professionalism, and I
think you guys get nothing butaccolades.
You do a great job.
And obviously it's importantfor people to remember that
those investigations are a lotmore involved.
Professionalism, and I thinkyou guys get nothing but
accolades.
You do a great job.
And obviously it's importantfor people to remember that
(18:49):
those investigations are a lotmore involved.
They take a little bit moretime, but at the end of the day,
I think it really shows thatyou guys have the results on the
table, that either an arrestoccurs, you guys are able to
determine exactly what happened,to make sure that you know,
know Cape Coral is taken care of, safe, the investigations are
done well and we're just verythankful overall for what you
(19:12):
guys do and the amount of workthat you put into those.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Thank you All right.
Thank you, guys for joining usand for everybody else in Cape
Coral, stay safe.
Hello and welcome back to the Cape Copcast.
I'm Officer Mercedes Simonswith the Public Affairs Office,
and today we have two specialguests and I'll let you guys
introduce yourselves.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm George Schwick.
I'm a traffic homicideinvestigator with the Cape Coral
Police Department, as everyonedoes.
I started off in patrol Most ofit was on nights and then I
kind of took an interest intraffic crashes and took a bunch
of classes and kind of gotselected for the Traffic
Homicide Unit.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Awesome.
So how many years do you haveon total with the?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
police department.
I started in 2018, so I'msupposed to be good at math here
.
Seven, yeah, about seven.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
My name is Steven Leonard.
I am also in the TrafficHomicide Unit.
I have been with CAPE now swornalmost nine years.
I've been in THI, which is theshort for Traffic Homicide
Investigations three and a halfyears now.
Before that I was on patrol onnights my whole career.
I enjoyed math.
It wasn't my best subject but Ienjoyed it enough to take on
(01:05):
this challenge.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It's similar to engineering and definitely a
challenge, but I enjoy it so,speaking of math, what all goes
into one of your thiinvestigations?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
we get called out if there's a fatality or injuries
that are likely could result ina fatality.
Every crash, crash, every caseis different.
Not all of them actuallyrequire math, but sometimes you
can use math to figure out someunknowns that you don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It doesn't always work out, depending on the
dynamics of the crash, dependingon the speed.
It depends on a lot.
But when you can do it it issatisfying, when it all works
together and kind of completesthe case.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So would you say that speed is the most frequent
answer for why a crash resultedin a fatality?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I think they kind of go hand in hand.
Sometimes with multiple.
It could be speed, it could belack of seat belts, not wearing
restraint device, it could beinattentiveness or impairment.
It all is very dependent on thecrash, but speed can play a
factor.
For sure.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Speed impairment and safety, like restraints, stuff
like that would probably lead tofatal injuries.
Stuff like that more than leadto fatal injuries.
Stuff like that more thananything else.
Unless it's a medic, sometimesthere's a medical issue that
happened which causes the crash,but that's kind of different.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Out of the cases resulting in an arrest, what are
some of the most interestingcases that you've had that
you're the most proud of, thatyou've worked in?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
cases that you've had that you're the most proud of,
that you've worked.
Hit and runs are definitelysatisfying to me because
obviously if somebody's leavingthe scene, they're most likely
hiding something, whetherthey're impaired at the time of
the crash or they have someissue with a driver's license or
criminal history that they'reconcerned about.
Whatever the case may be, whenyou can locate them and get
(03:05):
justice for the other involvedparties especially when we get
called out there's injuriesinvolved and it's typically a
serious injury where theirlife's been forever changed
because of the injury.
So when you can find the personand provide justice to them,
it's definitely rewarding.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
A lot of times we figure out who it is which I
don't know, that we have anythat are outstanding where it's
a hit and run with an unknown ofanything and we aren't able to
figure out who it is, and a lotof times, people that are that
leave the scene.
Maybe they're not even at faultfor the crash, but the fact
(03:45):
that they leave the scene.
Maybe they're not even at faultfor the crash, but the fact
that they leave the scene and itcaused a fatality and they did
not stop to report it orsomething like that.
Now it's a big felony.
That's 10 plus years in prisonif you get convicted, whereas
maybe you're not even at faultfor the crash or maybe you just
get a ticket for the crash,depending on on the
circumstances even if you are atfault and it's just a generic
(04:10):
fatality, there's no criminalaspect to it.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
I don't say generic fatality out of like lightly,
but there's no other aggravatingcircumstances.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
It's could be a year suspension on your driver's
license and a thousand dollarfine, exactly so like for the
people that don't have adriver's license or their
driver's license, than athousand dollar fine.
Exactly so, like for the peoplethat don't have a driver's
license or their driver'slicense is suspended if they
don't stop and stay at the crash.
Your consequences are going tobe exponential, comparatively.
And you guys have a pretty goodsolve rate.
So far as what you do in thecases that you go through to
(04:40):
really try to figure out who didit, what happened and what all
the factors were, and all thatkind of ends up being very
interesting just how all thatplays out with your
investigation and math andhaving witnesses and video
cameras, and there are just somany pieces that go into that
puzzle for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, witnesses that stick around after crashes help
us tremendously becauseobviously we're responding after
the fact, so we have to rely onvideo witness testimony
evidence we gather on scene tobuild a case.
But when citizens take a fewminutes out of their time to
stick around and sometimes itturns into a little more than a
few minutes by the time we getthere but when they do, it helps
(05:19):
us out tremendously because itgoes into identifying parties
involved in the cases that muchfaster and sometimes they're key
witnesses for putting somebodybehind the wheel or seeing a
vehicle description, whateverthe case may be.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
They're there before officers are there so they can
fill in the blanks.
I can think of certain crasheswhere we're looking at the scene
, at the scene evidence, andwe're like wait, this shouldn't
be here, like why is this?
I'm thinking of a specific onemotorcycle, one that you had,
and it's like why is thismotorcycle here?
Did someone move this?
But all the officers?
(05:56):
No, no one moved it.
We find a witness later andthey're like oh yeah, we moved
the bike over here.
Like oh well, we knew it wasmoved, but the witnesses that
are there help fill in thoseblanks of why stuff is the way
it is.
Witnesses are key.
That's what's helpful On anycrash.
If witnesses stick around, Ilike to thank them and be like,
hey, thank you for stickingaround, Because a lot of people
they just see the crash, they'relike, oh man, that's real bad,
(06:18):
and then they just keep ondriving and it's like maybe
you're the one that saw the keypiece of evidence or saw
something that is crucial to theinvestigation that could help
us out.
I mean, sometimes we can trackdown witnesses after the fact
which we have done.
It's not illegal.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
It just sucks yeah they're not doing anything wrong
.
It just definitely helps us.
We love our firefighters, butif they tell you to leave before
we get there, please stickaround.
And that's for every accident,beyond injury, hopefully, but
especially when there's Honestlyany incident, if you happen to
see it, you're being there andproviding that information helps
(06:54):
tremendously in anyinvestigation.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And with crashes.
Sometimes they'll tell they'lltry to get people to.
Maybe if their car stopped inthe middle of the road, maybe
that's causing another issue.
So maybe they're trying to makeyou move or leave because of
where you're at.
But if you can stick around thearea, maybe pull into a nearby
parking lot, pull over to a safearea so that you're not in the
(07:16):
way.
Sometimes that's another thing.
With, like with firefighters,they don't want too many people
in their way while they'retrying to help save someone's
life.
So they'll probably yell atpeople to get out of here.
We don't need you in the way,but they're they're trying to do
their job.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So definitely, just like you guys.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So we have THIs and then we have our drone program,
which you guys are both prettywell integrated into the drone
program.
You're a drone instructor.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
He is.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I know this kind of came into play what like a year
and a half ago now.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But you guys as the traffic homicide investigators.
It was kind of the place thatmade sense for you guys to have
and train with the UAVs.
The reason I guess what we usethem for is even before we had
drones, we used 3D scanners,like 3D scan technology, to
document our scenes with, whichis really good technology to use
, but with the drones, what theycould do for us is it can
provide an aerial, like atop-down view of a scene it's
using photos to create a 3Dimage of a scene, so you can 3D
scan with them as well.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But you get a different perspective of fills
and the voids from what we scanfrom the ground.
Because an aerial perspectivein crash investigation is
amazing because you can seethings that you can't see and
you're just standing over top ofit.
You get an aerial bird's-eyeview and it really helps paint
the picture of where vehiclesmove throughout the crash.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And that can be included in the case as part of
the evidence that if it goes tocourt or something like that,
the jury can see like a nicetop-down view of what the scene
was like.
And as they come out with newertechnology, we need to make
sure we're keeping up with thatand the newer technology has
better capabilities.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
How does it change from like a THI investigation
using drones to patrolsinvestigations?
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So patrol uses more basically what we previously
call out a suspect for activeinvestigations, active felony
investigations or locatingpeople missing people, which
happens every day, seems like.
So you get that bird's eye view.
You can use thermal imagingwhich the new ones will have
(09:30):
even world's better thermalimaging capabilities but it
gives you the ability to respondimmediately and send up a UAV
to try and locate somebody assoon as possible, without having
to call out a helicopter.
It's a fraction of the cost tooperate, charging batteries and
swap an amount if you need to,versus having to fly back to
(09:51):
refuel.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
And we're not replacing what they do.
What the aviation unit doesdoes it's just sometimes, if
it's, like you said, weather Idon't know if you mentioned that
, but weather, yeah, maybe it'sraining somewhere else in the
county and that would preventthem from coming, but over here
in north cape coral or something, it's not.
The weather's fine.
We can launch from like rightnearby, versus having to fly to
(10:15):
where the scene is.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, I think it's also a huge asset in missing
persons cases because we have somuch water here, especially if,
driving around town, you'llthink, oh, I can just get from
this street to this street, butreally there's a canal in the
middle and you have to go allthe way around.
But the drones have the abilityto go over water all the way
around.
But the drones have the abilityto go over water, so you can
(10:36):
see very quickly in a small area, things that you probably
wouldn't be able to get to asfast from a vehicle, let alone
having the aerial view.
Absolutely so when we put up adrone at an event like Red White
and Boom what exactly are youlooking for?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It's really just security.
I mean just to be up in theevent something happens and be
ready to go.
It's just a better vantagepoint than officers on the
ground.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
It just gives us a better ability to provide that
much more safety and security tothe event itself and the public
that are there attending.
Like I said, you can scan backand forth for things that seem
out of place, or if somethinggets called in over the radio,
you can hone in on that area andthere might not be responding
(11:21):
officers there yet, so you cankind of get an eye of what's
going on to let the otherofficers know or, if the officer
is involved in something, giveout a description of what's
going on.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
There's always people that get lost or get separated
from the right medical callsyeah well, I know we had one
little girl that went missingand I think they said she was
wearing a pink shirt with bluejean shorts.
So when an officer is justlooking in a crowd, you can only
see directly who's in front ofyou versus you.
Guys can go up above and thenlook down and tell an exact
(11:55):
location, potentially of wheresomeone would be, which luckily
they were found very quickly.
We didn't have to go to evasivemaneuvers to try to find them,
but we could.
I think that's one of thosesituations where especially
having you guys.
There is absolutely essential.
How many call outs do you guysusually have?
I know you track those statsper year.
How many outs do you guysusually have?
(12:15):
I know you track those statsper year.
How many times do you guys getutilized?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
There has been an increase over the last few years
, unfortunately, but I would sayin the fifties, the last few
years and hovering around the 20fatalities a year.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Some years are more than others, but we do seem to
be generally increasing over thelast few years.
I just have an interestingblend of drivers down here.
You have people that live herefull time and then you have
people that are retired and somefolks aren't in a hurry to go
anywhere and then other folksare in a hurry to get to work,
(12:51):
to live their daily lives,whatever the case may be, and
they don't always blend welltogether.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
We also have an increase in bicycles, electric
bicycles, electric scooters.
We don't always have justvehicle versus vehicle.
With more, greater population,we have more pedestrian traffic
that maybe there wasn't in theyears past.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Especially the electric bikes and vehicles have
gotten much faster over theyears and more common.
You can get somewhere a lotquicker and don't have to pedal
your own bike, or you can push abutton and get yourself where
you need to go.
But not all of them are streetlegal or the right class of
bicycle.
Versus electric motorcycle perse, they go over 28 miles an
(13:37):
hour.
Basically, it's not an electricbike bicycle and they are
technically not allowed to be onthe road or on the sidewalk, or
on the sidewalk.
So yeah right, they're notstreet legal.
It's no different than ridingan atv or side by side.
That's not street legal.
Down the road, same thing onthose electric dirt bike
(13:58):
vehicles that can go over 28miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, I think that's.
One really important thing forpeople is if you buy one of the
electric vehicles or golf cartsor whatever, just know your law,
because I think what, like 95%of Cape Coral, you can't have a
golf cart unless it's registered.
We don't have golf cart zonesin neighborhoods.
That's not a thing.
If you're 16 years old andyou're driving mom and dad's
(14:24):
golf cart down the street andit's not a registered motor
vehicle, you don't have alicense.
That's technically a criminaloffense and I don't think people
realize that when they lettheir kids drive around, correct
?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, definitely do your research.
Think people realize that whenthey let their kids drive around
, correct?
Yeah, definitely do yourresearch.
And even some of the electricbikes that go up to 28 miles an
hour, the standard bike helmetis not designed to get into a
crash god forbid at 28 miles anhour.
So if you're going to be ridingsome of the class 2 or class 3
bicycles, I would definitelyrecommend getting a more secure
(14:55):
dot helmet.
They're much safer, becausewe've seen crashes with bicycles
where people had bicyclehelmets on, but they were going
20 miles an hour and the bikehelmet's not going to do what
it's designed to do when you'regoing that fast.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
No, have you seen an increase in crashes for the
e-bikes and things like that?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
just because there's not there, they exist now.
Yeah, mostly it's.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I think just most of our bicycle crashes now are
turning out to be electrifiedbicycles, I think, just because
they're more and more common,they're more affordable, they're
becoming more and moremainstream, so they are becoming
more prevalent.
But they do increase the speedthat you can go on it, which is
great, but you just have to doit safely.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, and I think people probably don't see them
coming either, especially ifthey choose to ride on the
sidewalk.
They travel so fast.
The average human person overthe age of what like 25 is not
used to seeing electric bicycles.
They're used to seeing thespeed of an average bicycle,
which is what, like I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
12 8 to 12, yeah, 8 to 12, and now it's 28 more or
less take an extra look whenyou're coming up to
intersections to make surethere's no motorcycles or
bicycles coming from eitherdirection, because I know we
have a lot of medians that youcan drive straight across when
(16:17):
you make that turn.
Make sure obviously there's nobikes.
Because they are smallerobjects you don't see them as
easily, but unfortunately wehave a lot of vehicles that pull
out in front of them and theysay they never saw them and
obviously that's why the crashoccurred.
But just take an extra secondor two to look for those smaller
objects and then savesomebody's life definitely.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
The goal is always to have zero fatalities.
That's the goal.
That's why we send out so manyofficers onto the street to to
run traffic operations andthings like that.
You just had one the other dayand you guys had hundreds a few
hundred stops and, yeah, 150, Ithink, something like somewhere
around there yeah, with hundredsand hundreds of citations and
(16:59):
that's just.
You could sit there and writethem all day, which obviously
you guys did.
But sometimes it feels like itdoesn't make a dent just because
we only have so many officerswith so much time to sit there
and write tickets.
But that's where everybody hasto do their part and make sure
that you drive safe and youdrive safe and you know, look
(17:20):
for the pedestrians and thebicycles so that there are less
accidents.
If everyone drove cautiously,there would be no accidents.
But it's also your job to be adefensive driver and try to
prevent those as well.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Absolutely Everybody has an obligation to basically
drive your vehicle in a way toavoid causing damage or injury
to anybody else, whether it'syour fault or not.
Some road rage can occur, buttry to just let it not bother
you and move on with your day,so that way nothing else
(17:55):
advances and turns into more ofan issue down the road, with
aggressive driving or whateverthe case may be.
If somebody's driving that bad,call it in and let us take care
of it.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Exactly.
We're better trained to handlesituations like that than the
average person.
It's not for you to handle.
It's not for you to say, hey,you didn't stop at that stop
sign, let the police handle it.
Call, you can always reportthat we have.
Hey, we need increased patrolsin my neighborhood in the
morning because people arespeeding or not stopping at the
stop sign.
(18:27):
I'm sure we could talk all day.
Well, we are so thankful foreverything that you guys do.
There are a lot of reallycrucial investigations,
especially those involvingfatalities, that have to be
handled with extreme sensitivityand professionalism, and I
think you guys get nothing butaccolades.
You do a great job.
And obviously it's importantfor people to remember that
those investigations are a lotmore involved.
Professionalism, and I thinkyou guys get nothing but
accolades.
You do a great job.
And obviously it's importantfor people to remember that
(18:49):
those investigations are a lotmore involved.
They take a little bit moretime, but at the end of the day,
I think it really shows thatyou guys have the results on the
table, that either an arrestoccurs, you guys are able to
determine exactly what happened,to make sure that you know,
know Cape Coral is taken care of, safe, the investigations are
done well and we're just verythankful overall for what you
(19:12):
guys do and the amount of workthat you put into those.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Thank you All right.
Thank you, guys for joining usand for everybody else in Cape
Coral, stay safe.
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