May 19, 2025 • 25 mins
The latest episode of the Cape Copcast welcomes Property Crimes Unit Detective Jenna Newton, who takes listeners on an eye-opening journey from the high-crime streets of Las Vegas to the canals of Cape Coral. Her story shows the contrasts between policing environments—trading two robberies per night and constant gang surveillance for unlocked garage doors and watchful neighbors.
Detective Newton's path wasn't always aimed at investigations. She originally aspired to work in the K9 Unit, but discovered a passion for digging deeper into cases. Now as a property crimes detective, she tackles vehicle burglaries and construction site thefts while educating the community about crime prevention. Her insider perspective on why criminals target Cape Coral—precisely because residents feel safe enough to leave doors unlocked—offers valuable insight for people looking to protect their property.
Beyond her detective work, Newton shares what makes the Cape Coral Police Department unique. From her service with the Honor Guard to her famous "joke of the day" that lightens the mood before shifts, you'll get a dose of humanity behind the badge. Her appreciation for Cape Coral's supportive community—where citizens regularly thank officers rather than antagonize them—highlights why she plans to retire in the same city where she serves.
Whether you're curious about law enforcement careers, crime prevention, or simply want to understand your local police department better, Detective Newton's candid conversation offers something for everyone. Her message to residents: don't hesitate to report suspicious activity. As she puts it, "It's better to call and have it be nothing than to wish you had called later."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape
Copcast, the official podcast ofthe Cape Coral Police
Department.
I'm one of your hosts, LisaGreenberg.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And I'm officer Mercedes Simons.
Together we make up the PublicAffairs Office.
Today we have a very specialguest.
We have Detective Jenna Newton.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Welcome, thank you, how are?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
you.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm good.
You just recently became adetective, right Very recently.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
How's it going being a detective so far?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's going great.
It's very busy but it's nice todig into cases and you know
work to put people in jail whoruin other people's lives and
make their days harder.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
You're in property crimes right, correct, so you
must be pretty busy.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yes, we have a lot of vehicle burglaries in this city
.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's probably one of the most popular crimes that
we have in Cape Coral.
We don't have a ton of violentcrime or anything like that, but
property crime, I think, isprobably the easiest because
it's a crime of opportunity andwe have a very safe city.
So then, the more trusting thatpeople are, the more they leave
their doors and homes andthings like that unlocked
garages, and I think that thatprobably creates a lot more work
(01:11):
for you.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yes, people on vacation who come here and they
drop their level of safety andsecurity and they yeah, they
leave doors unlocked, they leaveprecious items in their cars
and people take advantage ofthat and unfortunately they make
some very hard days for people.
We've had wallets taken wherethere's tons of credit cards and
(01:36):
if you can't go buy anythingthat day and that's quite an
inconvenience for people, so alot of people say, oh, it's just
property, the banks will paythem back, but it can ruin
somebody's day, you know.
And why let the bad guys gospend so much money when
everybody works so hard for whatthey have?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Especially these days when everything's so expensive.
You know, absolutely.
I know obviously you came frompatrol and we'll get to more on
that in just a little bit, but Idid want to ask did you always
want to be a detective?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Not always, I always.
I love every aspect of policework, so I enjoy investigating,
I enjoy putting bad people injail and I enjoy working for
good people who work hard.
But no, I originally wanted tobe in canine.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You'd be good at that too.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, for sure.
Why?
What was the change?
Was it just kind of like itdidn't suit you?
It's a big time commitment,that's definite, but did it just
not suit kind of what youwanted anymore?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, I think things just change and I really did
start to enjoy the digging intodifferent ways to investigate a
crime.
I have all the respect in theworld for canines.
It's how I met my husband.
He was in canine for 18 yearsin las vegas.
So, wow, um, that's how I methim, going out and decoying for
him all the time.
But, uh, no, it just kind ofchanged.
(03:02):
Who knows, I might go to K-9one day, but I enjoy
investigations, I enjoy patrol.
I would enjoy probably any partof the department, as long as
it helps people in every aspectof our jobs do.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
She's a good jack-of-all-trades kind of
person.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, and that's the thing islike in law enforcement, I
think, cape Coral, we have what?
27 years to retirement, so wehave long careers and that's the
fun, especially for cops thatlike to do, they get bored
easily and you want to do andand start in patrol and love
patrol and get good at it.
That's always the thing is, Ithink it's important to stay
(03:49):
there for a while, get good atit and then you can go on and do
something different, butthere's no need to rush any kind
of positions or whatever youwant to do.
It's kind of as long as youwork hard, you can probably get
there, which I think is what youfound.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
How long have you work hard?
You can probably get there,which I think is what you found.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
How long have you been here now?
Because you were in vegasbefore five years in april.
Wow, yeah, that's awesome.
I know it goes by so fast.
It really does.
I am curious when you were likegrowing up, did you want to be
a cop?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
or that's awesome.
I did.
I was one of those nerds whowould point things out to my
parents and they would rolltheir eyes and be like why are
you paying attention to that car?
Well, it's been sitting therefor 13 minutes and it's kind of
odd.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
It's funny for people who like don't usually hang out
with cops, and then you ride inthe car with us and we just are
like, oh well, that tag iswrong, oh, that person's doing
that and they're not allowed to,and you just point out every
single violation.
And to people who are nottypically with cops, it's like,
well, just shut up.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
When I first started here, riding along with any of
you.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, my mom still rolls her eyes every time she
sees me back in.
She's like you just can't pullinto a parking spot like a
normal person.
No, I have to back in.
She's saying it's been trained.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And she says I need to go to the driving school so I
can learn to be efficient atbacking in, because I pull into
everything.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Driving school is beneficial for everyone.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So you have always wanted to be a police officer.
So you graduate high school.
What's kind of the processafter that?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
You graduate high school but a lot of people will
then go to college for criminaljustice because you can't be a
police officer until you're 21.
So there's some time in betweenthat and then you go to the
police academy and then go fromthere.
Some people go to the policeacademy on their own, some
people are sponsored, so they goto the department that they
want to be in first and thenthey go from there.
(05:46):
I went into the police academyfor my last department and then,
when I came out to Florida, Iwas able to do the EOT program,
which was great.
It's a bunch of trainingclasses that we go through when
we come from other departmentsand then they kind of sign you
off to make sure that you'reready to be a cop in Florida,
(06:08):
and it was a nice transition.
It was a lot of differentthings where every state is
different in how things arelabeled.
It might be a battery in onestate and a salt in another
state and it might meandifferent things per state that
you're in, but you learn howFlorida does things and then you
(06:28):
go on with your department.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
EOT is equivalency of training.
Yes, yeah, okay, cool, justmaking sure.
So you were a cop in Vegas,that was your first department.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yes, I was there for five years.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And what kind of things did you get into there?
What were you doing years and?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
what kind of things did you get into there?
What were you doing?
So in Vegas was a lot ofdomestic violence calls, and I
probably went to about tworobberies a night.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Which was nice to hear that when we came out here.
That is not.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I'm much.
I'm right there with you.
Um, my old department was thesame thing.
So when people complain abouttraffic, it's like okay, yeah, I
had to sit through that lighttwice.
That was really annoying, butwe're not going to two robberies
a night.
It's a real different way tolook at things and then to also
have and you can probably speakmore on this a supportive
community in comparison.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Absolutely.
I know we've discussed it.
Um, just how many people willpull up next to us and you don't
know who they are.
So you're cautious of what theywant from you and you roll down
your window and you're like Ijust want to say thank you for
your service and it just itmakes you feel good, it makes
you want to work even harder foryour community.
But we're going to do thatregardless, even if someone
(07:44):
drives by and flips us off.
But we'd prefer not to beflipped off, yeah for sure Were
you on patrol in Vegas.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I was yes Is that what you did the entire time.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
The entire time.
Yes, I worked nights in a notso great area, a very gang area.
That was also very different.
When I came out here, I askedone of the detectives well,
what's our gang problem like?
And they're like gang problem,we don't have that.
I said, yeah, sure, I knowevery big city says they don't
have a gang problem, but theyreally do.
(08:14):
And he said, no, we don't havea gang problem.
I drove around the city, Ichecked out a lot of different
cities before coming here and Inoticed, hey, there's no
graffiti.
I spent a lot of time in LasVegas documenting graffiti and
understanding each of the gangsand what their graffiti meant
(08:34):
and how.
That meant that there might bea retaliation on another gang
and we might, you know, have towatch for a possible homicide
coming up.
And luckily we don't have thathere and we'd like to work to
keep it that way.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
That's so interesting to me, Part of your job as a
cop.
You know I'm sitting herethinking, okay, if I'm going to
be a police officer, these arethe things I'm going to do, and
that would never have crossed mymind.
So that's so interesting.
So you were on patrol there forfive years.
What made you decide to leaveVegas?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
So my husband is 14 years older than me, so he was
approaching retirement and wewere always vacationing in
Florida.
We don't like the cold and somy husband thought, well, let's
go check out Florida.
I said if we can find a gooddepartment in Florida in a place
(09:22):
that's affordable, then we'llcheck it out.
And we were just havingbreakfast one day and he's
looking on Zillow and he's like,look at this little place with
all this water.
We could live on a canal.
I said, yeah, right, we can'tlive on a canal.
All those places in Florida areway too expensive.
No one could afford to live inFlorida.
(09:42):
And we came down, checked it outand we're like, hmm, maybe if
we buy one of the older housesin Florida we can afford it.
And we made it happen and Iapplied November 2019.
I came out and tested and theycalled me on Christmas Eve Okay,
and said, hey, are you able tocome down here next month, which
(10:06):
was interesting because theyalso called me this last
Christmas Eve to be a detective.
So good day, wow, that's soawesome.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Christmas Eve is a good day for you.
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I got called on Christmas Eve to work a detail.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I didn't get any calls on Christmas Eve.
But yeah, that's so exciting,that's awesome.
So you moved here, you startedon patrol, and I bet you it was.
Just we talked about it alittle bit, but I'm sure it was
just a night and day difference.
Well, first of all, weren't youactually moved to days when you
were here, or did you start onnights?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
I did start on nights here.
It was different as far as,like a lot of things.
So, like a lot of things, we domore investigations of our own
here in patrol and in Vegas wehad, we had a DUI unit.
So if I pulled somebody overwhich I didn't get to pull a
whole lot of people over therebecause we were so busy with
calls all the time it was niceto be able to do more traffic
(11:01):
stops here, to do a little moreof your own hunting, if you will
, for something.
And I was told you know, duisare an issue here, this is what
you look out for to find them.
And I started doing that.
I was really nervous because Inever fully did DUI
investigations, but I rode withsome of the DUI guys and I'm
like, okay, yeah, I can, I cando this.
(11:22):
So then I looked a lot for thatat night and just different,
different things, differentkinds of people that are out at
night and you know what'ssuspicious, just riding around
in neighborhoods.
A lot of people are verycurious when you're riding
around in their neighborhood andyou just, you know wave, or
some people leave their garageopen.
Just I thought it'd beirritating a lot of people by,
(11:44):
you know, knocking on their doorat 1 am and saying I'm sorry
your garage is open, I justdon't want someone to come break
in and thank you so much, Ididn't realize I left it open
and close it and sometimes youcouldn't get a hold of somebody
and you leave a crime preventionalert little flyer on their
door in their mailbox and I'mwas amazed how many people were
(12:05):
just thankful for that heads upthat were and knowing that we
are out there at night justdriving through the
neighborhoods making surethey're safe while they're
sleeping yeah, yeah, I'm sureand the fact that we have time
to do that here too is alsocrazy.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Coming from somewhere else, the you know just the
fact that patrol can work a lotof their own cases.
You can call detectives out to.
Detectives can work you forsomething major, absolutely.
But if it's something minor,you have the option to work it
and work even with thedetectives, to have them kind of
teach you the process on how tofollow through in a case, which
is great, because then you havepatrol who's learning those
(12:41):
fundamental skills so that ifthey want to go to a unit one
day, they can Versus the biggeragencies that have a lot of
detectives and a lot of crime.
You're just taking the firstinitial report and you're out of
there.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
You probably don't think about it after you never
hear what happens about it againbecause you're just so busy and
you're on to the next issuethat the city has.
But there was just so many callsthat there were times where I
would leave for my shift and Iwould come in 12 hours later
from my next shift, and some ofthe calls that were holding when
(13:14):
I left were still holding andwhen I came here we, you know,
we work really hard to work acall and get to the next call
and make sure that people areserved.
I mean, we work for them.
So it was nice to see.
The calls definitely do nothold as long here as a lot of
(13:35):
major cities.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I bet the property crimes detective Jenna is very
thankful for the patrol officer.
Jenna, who did go to all ofthose garages, and remind people
to shut them and, to you know,put those little safety alerts
out saying don't forget to dothis, because that's probably
what you're dealing with a lotright now, lots of those thefts
and yeah, crimes of opportunity,people here from out of town.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And then there's also , you know, kids that get into
some trouble at night and theyleave out their window and their
parents don't know they're goneand they're just being.
They think they're being sillyand just having fun and taking
stuff out of people's cars, butthey don't understand that it's
a felony to break intosomebody's vehicle and steal
(14:23):
what's inside.
Yeah, they don't see it as thatbig of a deal, but it is it is.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's serious, for sure most definitely so.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
What are um property crimes wise, what are the most
uh frequent cases that you guysdeal with?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
probably the vehicle burglaries, construction theft,
um, we are working a lot ofbreaker cases right now where
the breakers are being takenfrom a lot of the new
construction sites and so goingout there and educating some of
the general contractors of whatthey can do to protect
themselves, becauseunfortunately we do try to be
(14:56):
everywhere but we know that wecan't be right definitely so
absolutely, you know putting upcameras securing their buildings
and having good security, whoactually looks out for their
buildings, and things like that.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah and neighbors, like reminding people in
neighborhoods you could seesomething happening and be the
reason that it's prevented orput a stop to.
You know, like, if you look outyour window and you notice a
car at a construction site thatyou don't usually see, give us,
give us a call, or call the youknow.
Get to know the people who areat the construction site, maybe
(15:32):
get their information so that ifyou do see something suspicious
, you can call them and say, hey, there's a white truck.
Usually you're in a black truck, is this okay?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So many neighbors have helped us out like that.
Good neighborhoods thatcommunicate and contact and
don't hesitate to call thepolice when something seems
suspicious, are theneighborhoods that criminals
know not to go into.
There are way too many people.
There are way too many cameras.
I'm not going to hit thisneighborhood and people have
(16:04):
told us.
I hesitated to call, I didn'twant to bother you guys.
Well, that's our job.
So we come out and weinvestigate it, and maybe it is
somebody who works for the site,that's no problem.
We document that and then wemove on.
Because you don't want to wishthat you had called and then
find out that your neighbor'scar got burglarized the next day
(16:24):
.
Just call, we'll get to it andif it's nothing, it's no big
deal, right?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
What's the worst that could happen if it's nothing
and I know you're also involvedin the Honor Guard yes, that's
pretty special.
I don't think a lot of peopleat home who may be listening
right now really understand whatthe Honor Guard is.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
They're events to honor people, when police
officers and other people aremourning, and they're also there
for celebratory um events, suchas parades and things like that
.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's like the ceremonial side of police work,
kind of.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yes, yeah, yeah, good representation.
Um, unfortunately, we do haveto go to police officer funerals
, but it's important that wehave that camaraderie and show
that we support other agencies.
I always wanted to do it in LasVegas and I'd been to some of
the police officer funerals andI had gone to Christopher
Taylor's funeral here and one ofthe guys said, hey, why aren't
(17:23):
you in the honor guard?
And I said I don't think I canbe because I cry at funerals.
He said, yeah, that's why wewear sunglasses.
We all cry at funerals.
And I said I didn't think of itlike that.
But yeah, he's like well, youshould.
You could always try it out.
If you don't like it, then thenyou don't have to.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
But it's definitely an honor to represent the police
department.
It's one of those things whereyou truly have a passion for
what you do and those around youand it's that reminder of like
the brotherhood that lawenforcement is a part of that.
Even if somebody works in adifferent city, you still have
the same job.
You still face the samedangerous traffic stops and just
(18:07):
even being on the side of theroad is extremely dangerous, let
alone going into a house.
You don't know what kind ofweapons are there.
So it's all the same job, evenif it's in different places, and
so you know when.
Even if you don't know somebody, you still grieve for them
because they gave their life andthey're no longer.
You know they're not going tobe there for their family, and
(18:28):
it's just.
I think it's great that ourdepartment has such an active
honor guard and we're able to goto a lot of places because we
can show our support andsolidarity for such tragic loss.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah, I absolutely agree, and it's funerals are
very sad.
They are also humbling in thefact that it could be anybody.
Nobody ever expects to be thatperson or that officer.
You think that your tactics areperfect, but you can do
everything right and someonecould still shoot you.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
That's the grim reality for sure.
All right, let's switch gears alittle bit here.
Is there something from yourtime in Vegas that really stands
out to you as like a majormemory from when you look back?
Is there like a particular casethat stands out to you as like
a major memory from when youlook back?
Is there like a particular casethat stands?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
out.
The worst calls for any officeris when children are either
hurt or killed.
So I won't go into any of thosedetails about that, but
probably those and just lookingout for other officers, because
the officers who do have to dealwith those kinds of things,
(19:35):
every one of us is different.
We're all going to take it adifferent way.
When we have new officers thatcome here, just having that
conversation with them, you knowfrom the get-go like hey, not
every day is going to be great.
We, you, you can't go to 10calls a day where somebody's not
going to be mad at you.
Unfortunately, that's part ofthe job.
You will go to 10 calls a daywhere somebody is not going to
be mad at you.
Unfortunately, that's part ofthe job.
You will go to those callswhere people are very happy and
(19:56):
you have to also remember thatthose calls are good.
But reach out, talk to yourpeers, because somebody's been
through something.
Someone has another story.
I think the biggest thingoverall in any department is
just looking out for otherofficers, training them to be
safe.
You know everybody.
(20:19):
There's so many differentofficers here from other
departments that we all havelittle insights that we're
constantly learning from eachother.
I mean someone will saysomething today and I'll say I
didn't think about.
No one's ever taught me that Inever thought about that and
that we do reach out and saythings, not get offended by what
(20:39):
other people say, because we'reall just trying to help each
other out and to be a betteragency.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
From here and Vegas.
Obviously, you spent about fiveyears there, and now you've
been five years here.
What's your favorite part aboutthis department?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
we have a great community we have so many people
who want to be here like I, wemoved here and we plan on
retiring here.
How many people get to work inthe same place that they
actually want to be at when theyretire?
Um, we have a great communityhere, great officers, just
(21:13):
everybody is.
We get so many good tips whenwe put something out and it
helps the community understands.
They don't want any bad guys onthe street either, and you know
we're always going to haveissues.
We're always going to havetraffic issues, but we do listen
to them.
We work hard to make stops andit is nice when something
(21:34):
happens and we see it and wepull it over and you see the
person on your peripheral golike, yes, they finally saw it.
I've been telling them aboutthis and you know we are out
there, we just can't seeeverything, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Right, right, right, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
And I think something that's fun and unique about you
that Mercedes told me my olddepartment was very different.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
We did not do that either.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
We had like strict chain of command.
Like I would never talk to alieutenant in my old department
unless they talked to me first.
But we're very connected witheveryone around and there's just
kind of like open communicationusually.
I mean, obviously with respect,but I was shocked when Jenna
stood up and she's like okay, Ihave to share my joke of the day
now and it's like it was alwayssomething so quirky, but it's
(22:35):
so funny and it's just it wasalways great to hear before you
went out on your shift and sawGod knows what.
But you could always count onJenna.
If you didn't hear it on rollcall, she'd send it out on the
computer as a message of likeguess what the joke of the day
is?
And like you have people wholike hate it and roll their eyes
because dry humor is not foreveryone, it's for me.
So, um, officer Newton, what'syour joke of the day?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Oh geez, what's my joke of the day, do you?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
still do these every day, now that you're a detective
, I do yes.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
I'll.
I'd be disappointed if youdidn't.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I throw one out in the cubicles, and sometimes I
get silence.
And sometimes I'll get like oh,that was a good one.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Have you done it yet today?
What was your joke of the day?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
The joke today.
I try to associate it with whatkind of day it is.
So nationaltodaycom and Iactually had a lieutenant in
Vegas that would do this, and soI got it from him and I'm like
I really like those jokes and soI decided to just start doing
it here.
Um, but one of my favorite onesthat I did once to now, captain
(23:39):
matlock, I, it was the firstday of school, so I used that
and I said did you, did you hearabout the kidnapping today?
And she's like no, I feel likeshe's a lieutenant.
I feel like, as a lieutenant, Ishould have known that this
happened today.
I said, it's okay, the kid wokeup and she just stared at me.
(24:01):
She goes, get out of here, goto work.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
That's amazing, what day is it today.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Today is National Croissant Day.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
National Croissant Day.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
So why did the croissant apply for the job?
I don't know why it needed thedough.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
It was too flaky.
It didn't show up to its lastjob, yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I know there are probably more eye rolls out
there now.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
No, I love that, though, because everyone could
use a little bit of positivityto start their day.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, definitely I would appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I would laugh.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Good attitudes are the absolute best thing in law
enforcement, because sometimesyou see bad things, you end up
with some negative Nancys.
But having the people who bringpositive energy to the table
makes everybody's day so muchbetter.
So, Officer Newton, thank youso much for joining us and
coming on.
You've been a great guest.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
We appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
We finally got some more women to be on the Cape Cop
cast, so we're really excitedabout that too.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Happy to contribute.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You're the best.
Thank you so much, absolutely,and thank you at home for
listening or watching.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, Thank you and stay safe.
We'll see you next time.
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape
Copcast, the official podcast ofthe Cape Coral Police
Department.
I'm one of your hosts, LisaGreenberg.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And I'm officer Mercedes Simons.
Together we make up the PublicAffairs Office.
Today we have a very specialguest.
We have Detective Jenna Newton.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Welcome, thank you, how are?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
you.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm good.
You just recently became adetective, right Very recently.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
How's it going being a detective so far?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's going great.
It's very busy but it's nice todig into cases and you know
work to put people in jail whoruin other people's lives and
make their days harder.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
You're in property crimes right, correct, so you
must be pretty busy.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yes, we have a lot of vehicle burglaries in this city
.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
That's probably one of the most popular crimes that
we have in Cape Coral.
We don't have a ton of violentcrime or anything like that, but
property crime, I think, isprobably the easiest because
it's a crime of opportunity andwe have a very safe city.
So then, the more trusting thatpeople are, the more they leave
their doors and homes andthings like that unlocked
garages, and I think that thatprobably creates a lot more work
(01:11):
for you.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yes, people on vacation who come here and they
drop their level of safety andsecurity and they yeah, they
leave doors unlocked, they leaveprecious items in their cars
and people take advantage ofthat and unfortunately they make
some very hard days for people.
We've had wallets taken wherethere's tons of credit cards and
(01:36):
if you can't go buy anythingthat day and that's quite an
inconvenience for people, so alot of people say, oh, it's just
property, the banks will paythem back, but it can ruin
somebody's day, you know.
And why let the bad guys gospend so much money when
everybody works so hard for whatthey have?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Especially these days when everything's so expensive.
You know, absolutely.
I know obviously you came frompatrol and we'll get to more on
that in just a little bit, but Idid want to ask did you always
want to be a detective?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Not always, I always.
I love every aspect of policework, so I enjoy investigating,
I enjoy putting bad people injail and I enjoy working for
good people who work hard.
But no, I originally wanted tobe in canine.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You'd be good at that too.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, for sure.
Why?
What was the change?
Was it just kind of like itdidn't suit you?
It's a big time commitment,that's definite, but did it just
not suit kind of what youwanted anymore?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, I think things just change and I really did
start to enjoy the digging intodifferent ways to investigate a
crime.
I have all the respect in theworld for canines.
It's how I met my husband.
He was in canine for 18 yearsin las vegas.
So, wow, um, that's how I methim, going out and decoying for
him all the time.
But, uh, no, it just kind ofchanged.
(03:02):
Who knows, I might go to K-9one day, but I enjoy
investigations, I enjoy patrol.
I would enjoy probably any partof the department, as long as
it helps people in every aspectof our jobs do.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
She's a good jack-of-all-trades kind of
person.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, and that's the thing islike in law enforcement, I
think, cape Coral, we have what?
27 years to retirement, so wehave long careers and that's the
fun, especially for cops thatlike to do, they get bored
easily and you want to do andand start in patrol and love
patrol and get good at it.
That's always the thing is, Ithink it's important to stay
(03:49):
there for a while, get good atit and then you can go on and do
something different, butthere's no need to rush any kind
of positions or whatever youwant to do.
It's kind of as long as youwork hard, you can probably get
there, which I think is what youfound.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
How long have you work hard?
You can probably get there,which I think is what you found.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
How long have you been here now?
Because you were in vegasbefore five years in april.
Wow, yeah, that's awesome.
I know it goes by so fast.
It really does.
I am curious when you were likegrowing up, did you want to be
a cop?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
or that's awesome.
I did.
I was one of those nerds whowould point things out to my
parents and they would rolltheir eyes and be like why are
you paying attention to that car?
Well, it's been sitting therefor 13 minutes and it's kind of
odd.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
It's funny for people who like don't usually hang out
with cops, and then you ride inthe car with us and we just are
like, oh well, that tag iswrong, oh, that person's doing
that and they're not allowed to,and you just point out every
single violation.
And to people who are nottypically with cops, it's like,
well, just shut up.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
When I first started here, riding along with any of
you.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, my mom still rolls her eyes every time she
sees me back in.
She's like you just can't pullinto a parking spot like a
normal person.
No, I have to back in.
She's saying it's been trained.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And she says I need to go to the driving school so I
can learn to be efficient atbacking in, because I pull into
everything.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Driving school is beneficial for everyone.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So you have always wanted to be a police officer.
So you graduate high school.
What's kind of the processafter that?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
You graduate high school but a lot of people will
then go to college for criminaljustice because you can't be a
police officer until you're 21.
So there's some time in betweenthat and then you go to the
police academy and then go fromthere.
Some people go to the policeacademy on their own, some
people are sponsored, so they goto the department that they
want to be in first and thenthey go from there.
(05:46):
I went into the police academyfor my last department and then,
when I came out to Florida, Iwas able to do the EOT program,
which was great.
It's a bunch of trainingclasses that we go through when
we come from other departmentsand then they kind of sign you
off to make sure that you'reready to be a cop in Florida,
(06:08):
and it was a nice transition.
It was a lot of differentthings where every state is
different in how things arelabeled.
It might be a battery in onestate and a salt in another
state and it might meandifferent things per state that
you're in, but you learn howFlorida does things and then you
(06:28):
go on with your department.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
EOT is equivalency of training.
Yes, yeah, okay, cool, justmaking sure.
So you were a cop in Vegas,that was your first department.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yes, I was there for five years.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And what kind of things did you get into there?
What were you doing years and?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
what kind of things did you get into there?
What were you doing?
So in Vegas was a lot ofdomestic violence calls, and I
probably went to about tworobberies a night.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Which was nice to hear that when we came out here.
That is not.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I'm much.
I'm right there with you.
Um, my old department was thesame thing.
So when people complain abouttraffic, it's like okay, yeah, I
had to sit through that lighttwice.
That was really annoying, butwe're not going to two robberies
a night.
It's a real different way tolook at things and then to also
have and you can probably speakmore on this a supportive
community in comparison.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Absolutely.
I know we've discussed it.
Um, just how many people willpull up next to us and you don't
know who they are.
So you're cautious of what theywant from you and you roll down
your window and you're like Ijust want to say thank you for
your service and it just itmakes you feel good, it makes
you want to work even harder foryour community.
But we're going to do thatregardless, even if someone
(07:44):
drives by and flips us off.
But we'd prefer not to beflipped off, yeah for sure Were
you on patrol in Vegas.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I was yes Is that what you did the entire time.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
The entire time.
Yes, I worked nights in a notso great area, a very gang area.
That was also very different.
When I came out here, I askedone of the detectives well,
what's our gang problem like?
And they're like gang problem,we don't have that.
I said, yeah, sure, I knowevery big city says they don't
have a gang problem, but theyreally do.
(08:14):
And he said, no, we don't havea gang problem.
I drove around the city, Ichecked out a lot of different
cities before coming here and Inoticed, hey, there's no
graffiti.
I spent a lot of time in LasVegas documenting graffiti and
understanding each of the gangsand what their graffiti meant
(08:34):
and how.
That meant that there might bea retaliation on another gang
and we might, you know, have towatch for a possible homicide
coming up.
And luckily we don't have thathere and we'd like to work to
keep it that way.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
That's so interesting to me, Part of your job as a
cop.
You know I'm sitting herethinking, okay, if I'm going to
be a police officer, these arethe things I'm going to do, and
that would never have crossed mymind.
So that's so interesting.
So you were on patrol there forfive years.
What made you decide to leaveVegas?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
So my husband is 14 years older than me, so he was
approaching retirement and wewere always vacationing in
Florida.
We don't like the cold and somy husband thought, well, let's
go check out Florida.
I said if we can find a gooddepartment in Florida in a place
(09:22):
that's affordable, then we'llcheck it out.
And we were just havingbreakfast one day and he's
looking on Zillow and he's like,look at this little place with
all this water.
We could live on a canal.
I said, yeah, right, we can'tlive on a canal.
All those places in Florida areway too expensive.
No one could afford to live inFlorida.
(09:42):
And we came down, checked it outand we're like, hmm, maybe if
we buy one of the older housesin Florida we can afford it.
And we made it happen and Iapplied November 2019.
I came out and tested and theycalled me on Christmas Eve Okay,
and said, hey, are you able tocome down here next month, which
(10:06):
was interesting because theyalso called me this last
Christmas Eve to be a detective.
So good day, wow, that's soawesome.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Christmas Eve is a good day for you.
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I got called on Christmas Eve to work a detail.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I didn't get any calls on Christmas Eve.
But yeah, that's so exciting,that's awesome.
So you moved here, you startedon patrol, and I bet you it was.
Just we talked about it alittle bit, but I'm sure it was
just a night and day difference.
Well, first of all, weren't youactually moved to days when you
were here, or did you start onnights?
Speaker 3 (10:38):
I did start on nights here.
It was different as far as,like a lot of things.
So, like a lot of things, we domore investigations of our own
here in patrol and in Vegas wehad, we had a DUI unit.
So if I pulled somebody overwhich I didn't get to pull a
whole lot of people over therebecause we were so busy with
calls all the time it was niceto be able to do more traffic
(11:01):
stops here, to do a little moreof your own hunting, if you will
, for something.
And I was told you know, duisare an issue here, this is what
you look out for to find them.
And I started doing that.
I was really nervous because Inever fully did DUI
investigations, but I rode withsome of the DUI guys and I'm
like, okay, yeah, I can, I cando this.
(11:22):
So then I looked a lot for thatat night and just different,
different things, differentkinds of people that are out at
night and you know what'ssuspicious, just riding around
in neighborhoods.
A lot of people are verycurious when you're riding
around in their neighborhood andyou just, you know wave, or
some people leave their garageopen.
Just I thought it'd beirritating a lot of people by,
(11:44):
you know, knocking on their doorat 1 am and saying I'm sorry
your garage is open, I justdon't want someone to come break
in and thank you so much, Ididn't realize I left it open
and close it and sometimes youcouldn't get a hold of somebody
and you leave a crime preventionalert little flyer on their
door in their mailbox and I'mwas amazed how many people were
(12:05):
just thankful for that heads upthat were and knowing that we
are out there at night justdriving through the
neighborhoods making surethey're safe while they're
sleeping yeah, yeah, I'm sureand the fact that we have time
to do that here too is alsocrazy.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Coming from somewhere else, the you know just the
fact that patrol can work a lotof their own cases.
You can call detectives out to.
Detectives can work you forsomething major, absolutely.
But if it's something minor,you have the option to work it
and work even with thedetectives, to have them kind of
teach you the process on how tofollow through in a case, which
is great, because then you havepatrol who's learning those
(12:41):
fundamental skills so that ifthey want to go to a unit one
day, they can Versus the biggeragencies that have a lot of
detectives and a lot of crime.
You're just taking the firstinitial report and you're out of
there.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
You probably don't think about it after you never
hear what happens about it againbecause you're just so busy and
you're on to the next issuethat the city has.
But there was just so many callsthat there were times where I
would leave for my shift and Iwould come in 12 hours later
from my next shift, and some ofthe calls that were holding when
(13:14):
I left were still holding andwhen I came here we, you know,
we work really hard to work acall and get to the next call
and make sure that people areserved.
I mean, we work for them.
So it was nice to see.
The calls definitely do nothold as long here as a lot of
(13:35):
major cities.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I bet the property crimes detective Jenna is very
thankful for the patrol officer.
Jenna, who did go to all ofthose garages, and remind people
to shut them and, to you know,put those little safety alerts
out saying don't forget to dothis, because that's probably
what you're dealing with a lotright now, lots of those thefts
and yeah, crimes of opportunity,people here from out of town.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
And then there's also , you know, kids that get into
some trouble at night and theyleave out their window and their
parents don't know they're goneand they're just being.
They think they're being sillyand just having fun and taking
stuff out of people's cars, butthey don't understand that it's
a felony to break intosomebody's vehicle and steal
(14:23):
what's inside.
Yeah, they don't see it as thatbig of a deal, but it is it is.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's serious, for sure most definitely so.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
What are um property crimes wise, what are the most
uh frequent cases that you guysdeal with?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
probably the vehicle burglaries, construction theft,
um, we are working a lot ofbreaker cases right now where
the breakers are being takenfrom a lot of the new
construction sites and so goingout there and educating some of
the general contractors of whatthey can do to protect
themselves, becauseunfortunately we do try to be
(14:56):
everywhere but we know that wecan't be right definitely so
absolutely, you know putting upcameras securing their buildings
and having good security, whoactually looks out for their
buildings, and things like that.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah and neighbors, like reminding people in
neighborhoods you could seesomething happening and be the
reason that it's prevented orput a stop to.
You know, like, if you look outyour window and you notice a
car at a construction site thatyou don't usually see, give us,
give us a call, or call the youknow.
Get to know the people who areat the construction site, maybe
(15:32):
get their information so that ifyou do see something suspicious
, you can call them and say, hey, there's a white truck.
Usually you're in a black truck, is this okay?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So many neighbors have helped us out like that.
Good neighborhoods thatcommunicate and contact and
don't hesitate to call thepolice when something seems
suspicious, are theneighborhoods that criminals
know not to go into.
There are way too many people.
There are way too many cameras.
I'm not going to hit thisneighborhood and people have
(16:04):
told us.
I hesitated to call, I didn'twant to bother you guys.
Well, that's our job.
So we come out and weinvestigate it, and maybe it is
somebody who works for the site,that's no problem.
We document that and then wemove on.
Because you don't want to wishthat you had called and then
find out that your neighbor'scar got burglarized the next day
(16:24):
.
Just call, we'll get to it andif it's nothing, it's no big
deal, right?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
What's the worst that could happen if it's nothing
and I know you're also involvedin the Honor Guard yes, that's
pretty special.
I don't think a lot of peopleat home who may be listening
right now really understand whatthe Honor Guard is.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
They're events to honor people, when police
officers and other people aremourning, and they're also there
for celebratory um events, suchas parades and things like that
.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's like the ceremonial side of police work,
kind of.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yes, yeah, yeah, good representation.
Um, unfortunately, we do haveto go to police officer funerals
, but it's important that wehave that camaraderie and show
that we support other agencies.
I always wanted to do it in LasVegas and I'd been to some of
the police officer funerals andI had gone to Christopher
Taylor's funeral here and one ofthe guys said, hey, why aren't
(17:23):
you in the honor guard?
And I said I don't think I canbe because I cry at funerals.
He said, yeah, that's why wewear sunglasses.
We all cry at funerals.
And I said I didn't think of itlike that.
But yeah, he's like well, youshould.
You could always try it out.
If you don't like it, then thenyou don't have to.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
But it's definitely an honor to represent the police
department.
It's one of those things whereyou truly have a passion for
what you do and those around youand it's that reminder of like
the brotherhood that lawenforcement is a part of that.
Even if somebody works in adifferent city, you still have
the same job.
You still face the samedangerous traffic stops and just
(18:07):
even being on the side of theroad is extremely dangerous, let
alone going into a house.
You don't know what kind ofweapons are there.
So it's all the same job, evenif it's in different places, and
so you know when.
Even if you don't know somebody, you still grieve for them
because they gave their life andthey're no longer.
You know they're not going tobe there for their family, and
(18:28):
it's just.
I think it's great that ourdepartment has such an active
honor guard and we're able to goto a lot of places because we
can show our support andsolidarity for such tragic loss.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah, I absolutely agree, and it's funerals are
very sad.
They are also humbling in thefact that it could be anybody.
Nobody ever expects to be thatperson or that officer.
You think that your tactics areperfect, but you can do
everything right and someonecould still shoot you.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
That's the grim reality for sure.
All right, let's switch gears alittle bit here.
Is there something from yourtime in Vegas that really stands
out to you as like a majormemory from when you look back?
Is there like a particular casethat stands out to you as like
a major memory from when youlook back?
Is there like a particular casethat stands?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
out.
The worst calls for any officeris when children are either
hurt or killed.
So I won't go into any of thosedetails about that, but
probably those and just lookingout for other officers, because
the officers who do have to dealwith those kinds of things,
(19:35):
every one of us is different.
We're all going to take it adifferent way.
When we have new officers thatcome here, just having that
conversation with them, you knowfrom the get-go like hey, not
every day is going to be great.
We, you, you can't go to 10calls a day where somebody's not
going to be mad at you.
Unfortunately, that's part ofthe job.
You will go to 10 calls a daywhere somebody is not going to
be mad at you.
Unfortunately, that's part ofthe job.
You will go to those callswhere people are very happy and
(19:56):
you have to also remember thatthose calls are good.
But reach out, talk to yourpeers, because somebody's been
through something.
Someone has another story.
I think the biggest thingoverall in any department is
just looking out for otherofficers, training them to be
safe.
You know everybody.
(20:19):
There's so many differentofficers here from other
departments that we all havelittle insights that we're
constantly learning from eachother.
I mean someone will saysomething today and I'll say I
didn't think about.
No one's ever taught me that Inever thought about that and
that we do reach out and saythings, not get offended by what
(20:39):
other people say, because we'reall just trying to help each
other out and to be a betteragency.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
From here and Vegas.
Obviously, you spent about fiveyears there, and now you've
been five years here.
What's your favorite part aboutthis department?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
we have a great community we have so many people
who want to be here like I, wemoved here and we plan on
retiring here.
How many people get to work inthe same place that they
actually want to be at when theyretire?
Um, we have a great communityhere, great officers, just
(21:13):
everybody is.
We get so many good tips whenwe put something out and it
helps the community understands.
They don't want any bad guys onthe street either, and you know
we're always going to haveissues.
We're always going to havetraffic issues, but we do listen
to them.
We work hard to make stops andit is nice when something
(21:34):
happens and we see it and wepull it over and you see the
person on your peripheral golike, yes, they finally saw it.
I've been telling them aboutthis and you know we are out
there, we just can't seeeverything, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Right, right, right, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
And I think something that's fun and unique about you
that Mercedes told me my olddepartment was very different.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
We did not do that either.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
We had like strict chain of command.
Like I would never talk to alieutenant in my old department
unless they talked to me first.
But we're very connected witheveryone around and there's just
kind of like open communicationusually.
I mean, obviously with respect,but I was shocked when Jenna
stood up and she's like okay, Ihave to share my joke of the day
now and it's like it was alwayssomething so quirky, but it's
(22:35):
so funny and it's just it wasalways great to hear before you
went out on your shift and sawGod knows what.
But you could always count onJenna.
If you didn't hear it on rollcall, she'd send it out on the
computer as a message of likeguess what the joke of the day
is?
And like you have people wholike hate it and roll their eyes
because dry humor is not foreveryone, it's for me.
So, um, officer Newton, what'syour joke of the day?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Oh geez, what's my joke of the day, do you?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
still do these every day, now that you're a detective
, I do yes.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
I'll.
I'd be disappointed if youdidn't.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I throw one out in the cubicles, and sometimes I
get silence.
And sometimes I'll get like oh,that was a good one.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Have you done it yet today?
What was your joke of the day?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
The joke today.
I try to associate it with whatkind of day it is.
So nationaltodaycom and Iactually had a lieutenant in
Vegas that would do this, and soI got it from him and I'm like
I really like those jokes and soI decided to just start doing
it here.
Um, but one of my favorite onesthat I did once to now, captain
(23:39):
matlock, I, it was the firstday of school, so I used that
and I said did you, did you hearabout the kidnapping today?
And she's like no, I feel likeshe's a lieutenant.
I feel like, as a lieutenant, Ishould have known that this
happened today.
I said, it's okay, the kid wokeup and she just stared at me.
(24:01):
She goes, get out of here, goto work.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
That's amazing, what day is it today.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Today is National Croissant Day.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
National Croissant Day.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
So why did the croissant apply for the job?
I don't know why it needed thedough.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
It was too flaky.
It didn't show up to its lastjob, yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
I know there are probably more eye rolls out
there now.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
No, I love that, though, because everyone could
use a little bit of positivityto start their day.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, definitely I would appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I would laugh.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Good attitudes are the absolute best thing in law
enforcement, because sometimesyou see bad things, you end up
with some negative Nancys.
But having the people who bringpositive energy to the table
makes everybody's day so muchbetter.
So, Officer Newton, thank youso much for joining us and
coming on.
You've been a great guest.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
We appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
We finally got some more women to be on the Cape Cop
cast, so we're really excitedabout that too.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Happy to contribute.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You're the best.
Thank you so much, absolutely,and thank you at home for
listening or watching.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, Thank you and stay safe.
We'll see you next time.
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