July 21, 2025 • 20 mins
FTO Coordinator Sergeant Gerry Buonocore joins the Cape CopCast to take us behind the scenes of the Cape Coral Police Department's comprehensive training program, revealing the journey from recruit to fully-qualified officer. With eleven years on SWAT, experience as an undercover Narcotics Detective, and now serving as the department's Field Training Officer Coordinator, Sergeant Buonocore brings unique perspective to the conversation about what makes an effective police officer.
What does it really take to wear the badge? The answer might surprise you. The training pipeline spans approximately nine months – six months at the Academy, nine weeks of Department-specific training, and nearly 50 days of closely supervised field training. The Cape Coral Police Department recently enhanced their pre-deployment phase to include patrol rifle certification, speed measurement certification, and Crisis Intervention Team training before officers even hit the streets. This strategic move ensures new officers are fully equipped from day one.
Throughout our conversation, Sergeant Buonocore emphasizes that communication skills are key when it comes to effective policing. "If we can handle a situation just using our communication skills, that's always going to be the best outcome," he explains. While the department maintains high standards and isn't afraid to dismiss trainees who don't measure up, their primary goal is setting officers up for success through thorough preparation and mentorship. The badge and gun come with "an immense responsibility" that requires not just physical courage but emotional intelligence and sound judgment.
Sergeant Buonocore reflects on the balance between administrative duties and field work, the brotherhood formed through shared experiences, and the continued community support that makes Cape Coral unique. Ready to learn more about what happens before an officer responds to your call? Listen now and gain a new appreciation for the men and women who protect and serve.
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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.
I'm one of your hosts PublicAffairs.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Officer Lisa Greenberg and I'm Officer
Mercedes Simons.
Together we make up the PublicAffairs Office and today we have
Sergeant Jerry Bonacore.
He is our FTO coordinator now.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Do you want to tell us?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
a little bit more about your history at the
department before we get intowhat you're doing now.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yeah, absolutely.
Started with the department in2012.
Did my first seven years on theroad, my first six on nights.
I made the SWAT team in 2014,.
So I've been on the SWAT teamfor 11 years now.
My first five years was anentry member.
The last six have been on thesniper unit and the last four as
the assistant team leader forthe sniper element.
(00:48):
I moved to narcotics in 2019,did four years as an undercover
narcotics detective and then gotpromoted to sergeant almost two
years ago.
Now Did my first year and ahalf as a patrol sergeant and
just recently, in March, I gotmoved to the professional
development unit and I'm the FTOcoordinator sergeant.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Nice.
Do you like the change?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I do, I do.
It's been awesome.
It's been very rewarding.
It's a lot of fun to get towork with all the new people and
it's fun being able to see themcome in, grow and influence
them early in their careers totry to get them started on the
right foot.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's kind of interesting because your
position prior to thiseverything you've done has been
really in the action right.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
There's a lot of SWAT , there's patrol, there's
narcotics.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
You're really getting into like the dirty stuff and
then you move into training andyou probably spent a lot of time
in these four walls of thebuilding and at the training
center.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yes, yeah, it has been an adjustment, for sure.
Yeah, like training center.
Yes, yeah, it has been anadjustment, for sure.
Yeah, like you said, themajority of my career has really
been what you would considertraditional police work and
really getting into things, soit's been a bit of an adjustment
, taking more of aadministrative role, but it's
been a lot of fun.
It's been a good adjustment andI have my first kid coming on
the way, so the timing couldn'tcouldn't have been better.
(02:01):
With the schedule change andhaving a little bit more normal
hours with the little one coming, that's awesome.
Are you having a girl?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
or a boy.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
A boy.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Oh, that's so exciting.
Yeah, we're very excited.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
yes, Another baby boy Can confirm boys are awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I'm very much looking forward to it.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
But that makes you like the perfect person for the
job with all the life experienceyou know, like you've been in
the field, you've done your time, you kind of know all the
tactical elements of things,because I think one of the
things that you have to do rightwhen they get on the road is
review body cam footage andstuff like that.
So you're probably the bestperson for the job to sit there
and point out tactics of.
I'd probably do that a littlebit different next time.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, I have been very fortunate in my career to
have a lot of experience doing alot of different things, and it
has given me what I wouldconsider a wealth of knowledge
in different areas of expertise.
I've also had the privilege ofworking with some fantastic
(02:59):
supervisors myself people whoreally set me on the right path
and showed me the right way todo things.
So it's just good to be able topass that knowledge along,
really help these new guys, likeI said, get off on the right
foot and make sure they'resquared away, ready for the
challenges of the career that'sahead of them.
Yeah, you kind of touched on it,but for people who don't know
what exactly is your current joband what do you do, so as the
FTO coordinator, basically thenew hires get assigned to me the
day they're hired and then theyare directly assigned to me
(03:21):
through their academy at theSouthwest Florida Public Service
Academy, through theirpre-deployment phase here at the
department and then throughtheir field training phase.
So I have them from day one.
They walk in the door till thelast day of FTO and get out
ready to go on their own.
So it's a lot of like we talkedabout reviewing the work that
they're doing.
(03:41):
Their training officerscomplete a daily observation
report every single day thatthey have their trainee with
them.
So every day I go in I readthose DORs, I check on what kind
of calls they've been to, howthey're handling certain types
of calls, how they're doing andeverything from their radio
traffic to their driving totheir officer safety.
I review all that every day andthen we'll have like biweekly
(04:03):
sit downs with myself, the train, the trainee and the training
officer just to touch onanything specific that the
training officer wants to talkabout or any areas that they
could be improving in the areasthat they're doing really well
in, just to get a better idea, afirsthand experience of how
they're doing out there on theroad.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's awesome.
And for people again who maybedon't have a lot of knowledge of
this area the Southwest FloridaPublic Service Academy that's
like the schooling side of it.
Then they come here and theyhave their department training,
which kind of gets themintroduced to how our department
specifically functions, ourspecific things that we have to
follow, and also gets them alittle bit of experience prior
(04:40):
to actually getting onto theroad.
Then they're in the car withtheir field training officer
really getting the hands-onexperience before then being out
on the road on their own.
How long is that entire process?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, it's a long process and it can get grueling
at times.
So they start with the academy.
That's usually about asix-month period, depending on
like holidays and schedules thatthe schools are in session, but
that's about a six month periodthat they're in the academy.
Once they graduate the academythey go and take their state
certification test.
Once they pass their statecertification test they come to
us when they get here.
Like you said, they take thatbasic knowledge that they
(05:14):
learned at the academy and wejust expand upon that, build on
that and really get them in tunewith how Cape Coral Police
Department does things, our withhow Cape Coral Police
Department does things, ourdepartment policies, our
department procedures.
So that's a nine-week coursethat they go to once they
graduate the academy and come tous.
We cover everything fromreality-based training scenarios
to the administrative side ofthings, how to work the computer
(05:36):
programs that we work with outon the road.
And we just recently added afew extracurriculars to our
pre-deployment, which is why weexpanded it out to nine weeks.
We're actually proud to saythat we're sending our new
officers out from pre-deploymentalready with their patrol rifle
certification, their speedmeasurement certification and
CIT certified.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That's actually so smart.
I didn't know that because whenI went through it was not that
way.
And that makes so much sense,because taking people off of
patrol to go to these trainingsand that you might not get them
because they're either full orit just didn't work out with
everybody else's scheduleBecause it's not we don't have a
thousand officers to switcharound.
Yeah, and that was actually.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Sergeant Bean recognized that deficiency.
Just like you said, we'resending new guys out on the road
and then immediately havingthem put in for classes that
take them off the road asthey're just getting into their
schedule and getting into aroutine with things and putting
them in class.
We added that to ourpre-deployment, so they hit the
road running at this point.
So, once they finishedpre-deployment with us they go
out into the official term, forit is our officer training
(06:38):
evaluation program, otep forshort.
That's their FTO program.
They'll do 20 days of phase one, which is where they're kind of
just learning the job.
They're more of the secondaryofficer, they're training
officers, the primary officerand they're learning how things
work out in the real world.
Phase two they do another 20days with a second FTO.
That's where they're becomingmore of the lead role.
(07:00):
They take more of the primaryofficer role and then, after the
20 days in phase two, they moveto phase In.
Phase three they are, althoughwe have a training officer
riding with them in the car,they're there for observation
only.
The officer trainee is incharge of the calls that they go
to dispatching themselves to,whatever it may be, and they
handle everything from start tofinish on the calls.
(07:22):
The FTO is just there toobserve, rate how they're doing
on those last seven days.
Once they finish those sevendays they're ready to head on
their own.
We do have a phase four FTOwhere we just follow up them
over the next few months.
Just make sure thateverything's going well with
them If we need to get out therewith them on a few calls.
We do just a follow-up phase tomake sure everything is being
retained properly and thatthey're doing well and set up
(07:44):
for success.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, that's great, it's awesome.
It's really necessary to makesure that officers are safe to
go out on their own, because wedon't have the ability to go
back after we make decisionsthat could potentially harm you
or somebody else.
So, that's why there's so muchtraining is making sure that
everyone is truly squared away,at least as best as they can be
Right, you're always going to goto different calls and things
(08:06):
that you haven't experiencedbefore you might not know what
to do, but just having the basicsafety down is so important.
You can look up whatever statestatute you need later, but
being able to go make thosesplit-second decisions and have
the training to back you up isreally what's crucial, which is
why we have so much added.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Yeah, those split-seconddecisions like you said.
That's really what we want toget them ready for in those
pre-deployment and then the OTEPphases.
And, like you said, cape CoralPolice Department does a
phenomenal job of putting thoseprograms in place and setting
those guys up for success asthey come out on their own.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And I think it's important that people who either
have interest in being a policeofficer or even just people at
home who are curious how thedepartment works, know how much
training goes into this, thisisn't a thing where we get
someone off the street and inthree weeks they're on the road.
This is an extensive process.
There's a lot that goes into itand there are times where
people will graduate from thePublic Service Academy.
(09:04):
They'll come into our training,they'll go into the FTO part of
the training and not make it,and we have to dismiss them
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, yeah, and it's like you said.
It's a grueling process and wedo have high standards here at
the Cape Coral Police Department.
We want the best of the best.
Our community expects that ofus, and we want to make sure
that we're putting the rightpeople out there to get the job
done safely and professionallyand that extended training does
afford us the opportunity tomake sure that maybe somebody is
(09:33):
really good in a classroom.
But once they get out there andyou have to make decisions in
an ever-evolving world,sometimes not everybody's cut
out for it, and so there aretimes when we do have to dismiss
people from the OTEP program.
We always want everybody tosucceed and we try to do
everything we can to geteveryone to succeed, but in the
(09:53):
end we got to make sure thatwe're putting quality officers
out there and upholding thestandards of the department.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
For sure.
And I think it's one thing,like you mentioned, for someone
to be in a classroom setting andsay all the right things and
when you know the tensionsaren't heightened, and all of
that in a controlled setting toknow what to do.
But it's when you're in themoment and there's tensions are
high and things are gettingcrazy, knowing and falling back
on the instinct and that thatinstinct is the right thing.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
And we let our officers know, even when they
finish the OTEP program.
You're still going to belearning.
Like it's common phrase to say,you don't really know how to be
a cop until you've done yourfirst three years, because there
are so many variants ofcircumstances and situations and
everybody's going to reactdifferently every time you go on
a call, even if it's the samecall type.
(10:40):
So having the training is great, but there's nothing like that
real world experience andgetting out there and seeing how
different people react todifferent circumstances.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Absolutely, and it's so different.
When I went through the academyand then we graduated, me and
my buddy looked at each other.
They're like they're giving usguns now.
Because in the academy we hadthese blue training guns, and
then, all of a sudden, it'sgraduation day and they give you
your real gun and we're likethey trust us with these.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It could be a real reality check.
Yeah yeah, they hand you abadge and a gun and it's an
immense responsibility.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah yeah, there's a big difference between the book
smarts and the street smarts.
You can learn anything you wantin the academy.
You can be at the very top ofyour class and you still might
not be the best cop, and that'ssomething that, luckily, I think
a lot of people recognize forthemselves.
I don't know that there's a lotof people that we necessarily
have to be like.
You're out, hopefully at least.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, like you said, there's a lot of self-reflection
takes place when you're in thatOTEP program and you're getting
out there and you'reexperiencing A lot of our guys
come to us straight out ofcollege and they don't really
have any real life experienceyet and they get out there and
they start experiencing thingsthat they've never had the
opportunity to be placed inthose kinds of situations before
in their life.
So a lot of self-reflectiontakes place on that and during
(11:57):
that FTO OTP phase and somepeople decide that it's just not
for them.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, it's a huge learning curve, Like sometimes
the lights don't really turn onfor a lot of people until two,
three years.
That's to feel trulycomfortable.
Know that you're going to acall doing the right thing
because you can be a cop at 21.
We go to calls all the time.
What does a 21-year-old haveany business going to this
domestic with these 45-year-oldmarried couple?
They haven't been married butyet they have to give them
(12:24):
marriage advice and hope thatpeople listen to them.
It's finessing all of yourcommunication skills that you
might not have yet.
There's a lot that goes into itto really make a successful
police officer.
That goes past what you do.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think you said it there withthe communication skills, and
that's something that we try tobuild upon in the pre-deployment
and in the OTEP phase is, wecan teach you policy and
procedure all day long, but ifyou can't talk to people, you're
not going to excel at this job,and so we do a lot of that
reality-based training and wetry to put them in uncomfortable
(12:57):
situations during that trainingto build those communication
skills and give our officers theverbal equipment.
Would you say, that they canuse that on the road to solve a
lot of issues instead of havingto use their tools?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, hey, that is.
Maybe you guys know that I camefrom Maryland where they had
all these use of forceretraining, but one of the
actually most efficient thingsthat they said is, your first
line of defense is actually yourverbal communication.
That's the first tool in yourtool belt that you should at
least try to use.
I mean situation dependent.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah, no, you're 100% correct.
If we can handle a situationjust using our communication
skills, that's always going tobe the best outcome, and so,
like I said, we try to instillthat upon our guys and make sure
that they understand.
That's an important step in theprocess.
It should be the first step,and it's a very important one.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Have there been a lot of recent issues with anything?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
We're very fortunate here in Cape Coral to have an
extremely supportive community.
So, yeah, we don't deal with alot of the unrest that some of
the other areas of the countryexperience, and we're very
fortunate in that.
So, no, we haven't seen a lotof issues.
Of course, there's always goingto be mistakes, things happen.
(14:14):
Things happen super rapidly outthere, a lot faster than
someone who's sitting at a deskwatching the video can really
process how those situations gofrom bad to worse really quickly
out there on the road.
We're all human right andmistakes are made.
But again, I think we do aphenomenal job here of giving
(14:35):
them the tools to get out thereon their own and the experience
and understanding of how tohandle those situations.
And beyond that, when thosemistakes do happen, we have a
phenomenal training unit who'sable to bring those people in,
have the proper conversations,the proper remedial training or
whatever it may be, to make surethat those issues aren't a
(14:56):
continuing thing.
We take care of themimmediately, we recognize them
quickly and we take the actionsthat we need to correct any
potential mistakes.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, that's great.
That's so important.
I think that you're out theredoing a phenomenal job.
I know it hasn't been too long,but having somebody who has the
ability to just communicatethings but also be transparent
with everything and to bestraightforward.
Hey look, this needs to befixed.
I think having both of thoselike mentorship, but also kind
(15:26):
of like a firm hand in what'sgoing on is really great,
absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, like you said again, communication is key and
I think it's super importantthat when we're talking to the
guys and covering issues that weare straightforward with, them.
Hey, this is what you did wrong,but this is how we're going to
fix it.
And we try to have thoseconversations be productive.
We don't want to have justmeaningless conversation, just
to have the conversation.
(15:52):
We want to make sure thatthey're productive and that
we're correcting those issuesand that not only are we
correcting the issues, but theofficer also understands why.
They get the why of why we'regoing over it or what the issue
was.
We want them to understand itbecause when you understand
something, you're much lesslikely to make that mistake
again, as opposed to just hey,you did this wrong, do this next
time.
(16:12):
Well, if you don't understandwhy you have to do it that way
next time, you're more apt tomake that mistake again.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So that makes sense.
I do have a question.
I do have a question.
Is there anything you missabout kind of being in the
action?
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah it is.
It's always fun getting outthere.
That's the great thing aboutbeing a cop is every day is
different, right?
You know you never know whatyou're going to get into.
You never know when that toneis going to go off and things
are going to hit the fan andit's going to be time to use all
those skills that you've beentaught.
So you do miss that.
Sometimes.
You miss the adrenaline dumpsand the camaraderie that comes
with being in those situations.
You deal with certain things asa police officer that 99% of
(16:51):
the population will never haveto deal with and you do form
bonds going through those things.
I'm not going to equate it tothe military, because obviously
they go through a wholedifferent set of circumstances,
but that brotherhood, thatfamily, that community that you
build, going through thoseexperiences that not everybody
goes through, is a special thing.
So you do miss getting intothings like that and having
(17:13):
those experiences with yourbuddies.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, at least you still have SWAT.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
It's not like you're just sitting behind a desk all
the time.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
You get to go out and have fun and train.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, and that's something that I love doing?
Sitting behind a desk, all thetime you get to go out and have
fun.
Yes, yeah, and that's somethingthat I love doing.
I've been on the team, like Isaid, for 11 years now and I
love every second of it.
Yeah, I have no intention ofcoming off the team anytime soon
.
It's one of my favorite aspectsof the department.
It's just another level of thatbrotherhood.
When you go through thatphysical training and those kind
(17:41):
of scenarios with the SWAT team, you really build a bond and we
have a great team with greatleadership and it's a real joy,
honestly.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
It's kind of like you got the best of both worlds.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I do, I do.
I would say that, yes, yeah,I've been very lucky in my
career.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
It's kind of a reality check.
I bet too to be like wait, nowI'm in charge of all these
people you know.
It kind of is like oh so.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I'm in charge of them now.
Yeah yeah, when I first gotpromoted and I went out on my
first shift as a patrol sergeant, that was a bit of a reality
check.
You sit there and you're likeoh man.
When something goes wrong, I'mthe guy that's going to come in
and make sure that it gets fixedand everything is going right.
It is a weight ofresponsibility but luckily, like
I said, I've had a lot ofopportunities to do a lot of
things with the department andgain that valuable experience.
(18:24):
And even when you become asergeant, we have a sergeant
training evaluation program.
So it's almost like an FTO forthe sergeants and they go step
by step with you on what you'regoing to encounter as a sergeant
and how to handle certainsituations.
A big part of it as a sergeantis the administrative side.
A lot of people don't realizethat it's not just you're out
(18:45):
there.
You're worried about yourpeople, making sure that they're
okay and they're safe andeverything they're doing is what
they're supposed to be doing.
But the administrative side ofit is a whole nother beast.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes to
make sure that things arerunning efficiently, and that's
the big reality check as asergeant is getting in the weeds
with all that paperwork andrealizing oh man, I think that's
probably like one of thebiggest wake up calls to a lot
of cops is it's oh, it's notjust out there in the action
doing this, and that all thetime it is so much
administrative paperwork.
(19:14):
Yes, a call.
You don't just go to the calland fix everything.
You usually have to do a reportafter.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Absolutely yeah yeah.
But to do a report after?
Absolutely yeah yeah.
But a lot of paperwork goesinto police work that people
don't realize.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
But it's important.
So very well, we appreciate you.
Is there anything else that youwere thinking of that you
wanted to add in?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Not really.
I appreciate you guys having meon.
It's fun.
I enjoyed it, so you know good.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
See you quick and pain.
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape
Copcast.
I'm one of your hosts PublicAffairs.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Officer Lisa Greenberg and I'm Officer
Mercedes Simons.
Together we make up the PublicAffairs Office and today we have
Sergeant Jerry Bonacore.
He is our FTO coordinator now.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Do you want to tell us?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
a little bit more about your history at the
department before we get intowhat you're doing now.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yeah, absolutely.
Started with the department in2012.
Did my first seven years on theroad, my first six on nights.
I made the SWAT team in 2014,.
So I've been on the SWAT teamfor 11 years now.
My first five years was anentry member.
The last six have been on thesniper unit and the last four as
the assistant team leader forthe sniper element.
(00:48):
I moved to narcotics in 2019,did four years as an undercover
narcotics detective and then gotpromoted to sergeant almost two
years ago.
Now Did my first year and ahalf as a patrol sergeant and
just recently, in March, I gotmoved to the professional
development unit and I'm the FTOcoordinator sergeant.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Nice.
Do you like the change?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I do, I do.
It's been awesome.
It's been very rewarding.
It's a lot of fun to get towork with all the new people and
it's fun being able to see themcome in, grow and influence
them early in their careers totry to get them started on the
right foot.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's kind of interesting because your
position prior to thiseverything you've done has been
really in the action right.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
There's a lot of SWAT , there's patrol, there's
narcotics.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
You're really getting into like the dirty stuff and
then you move into training andyou probably spent a lot of time
in these four walls of thebuilding and at the training
center.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yes, yeah, it has been an adjustment, for sure.
Yeah, like training center.
Yes, yeah, it has been anadjustment, for sure.
Yeah, like you said, themajority of my career has really
been what you would considertraditional police work and
really getting into things, soit's been a bit of an adjustment
, taking more of aadministrative role, but it's
been a lot of fun.
It's been a good adjustment andI have my first kid coming on
the way, so the timing couldn'tcouldn't have been better.
(02:01):
With the schedule change andhaving a little bit more normal
hours with the little one coming, that's awesome.
Are you having a girl?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
or a boy.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
A boy.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Oh, that's so exciting.
Yeah, we're very excited.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
yes, Another baby boy Can confirm boys are awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I'm very much looking forward to it.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
But that makes you like the perfect person for the
job with all the life experienceyou know, like you've been in
the field, you've done your time, you kind of know all the
tactical elements of things,because I think one of the
things that you have to do rightwhen they get on the road is
review body cam footage andstuff like that.
So you're probably the bestperson for the job to sit there
and point out tactics of.
I'd probably do that a littlebit different next time.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah, I have been very fortunate in my career to
have a lot of experience doing alot of different things, and it
has given me what I wouldconsider a wealth of knowledge
in different areas of expertise.
I've also had the privilege ofworking with some fantastic
(02:59):
supervisors myself people whoreally set me on the right path
and showed me the right way todo things.
So it's just good to be able topass that knowledge along,
really help these new guys, likeI said, get off on the right
foot and make sure they'resquared away, ready for the
challenges of the career that'sahead of them.
Yeah, you kind of touched on it,but for people who don't know
what exactly is your current joband what do you do, so as the
FTO coordinator, basically thenew hires get assigned to me the
day they're hired and then theyare directly assigned to me
(03:21):
through their academy at theSouthwest Florida Public Service
Academy, through theirpre-deployment phase here at the
department and then throughtheir field training phase.
So I have them from day one.
They walk in the door till thelast day of FTO and get out
ready to go on their own.
So it's a lot of like we talkedabout reviewing the work that
they're doing.
(03:41):
Their training officerscomplete a daily observation
report every single day thatthey have their trainee with
them.
So every day I go in I readthose DORs, I check on what kind
of calls they've been to, howthey're handling certain types
of calls, how they're doing andeverything from their radio
traffic to their driving totheir officer safety.
I review all that every day andthen we'll have like biweekly
(04:03):
sit downs with myself, the train, the trainee and the training
officer just to touch onanything specific that the
training officer wants to talkabout or any areas that they
could be improving in the areasthat they're doing really well
in, just to get a better idea, afirsthand experience of how
they're doing out there on theroad.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's awesome.
And for people again who maybedon't have a lot of knowledge of
this area the Southwest FloridaPublic Service Academy that's
like the schooling side of it.
Then they come here and theyhave their department training,
which kind of gets themintroduced to how our department
specifically functions, ourspecific things that we have to
follow, and also gets them alittle bit of experience prior
(04:40):
to actually getting onto theroad.
Then they're in the car withtheir field training officer
really getting the hands-onexperience before then being out
on the road on their own.
How long is that entire process?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, it's a long process and it can get grueling
at times.
So they start with the academy.
That's usually about asix-month period, depending on
like holidays and schedules thatthe schools are in session, but
that's about a six month periodthat they're in the academy.
Once they graduate the academythey go and take their state
certification test.
Once they pass their statecertification test they come to
us when they get here.
Like you said, they take thatbasic knowledge that they
(05:14):
learned at the academy and wejust expand upon that, build on
that and really get them in tunewith how Cape Coral Police
Department does things, our withhow Cape Coral Police
Department does things, ourdepartment policies, our
department procedures.
So that's a nine-week coursethat they go to once they
graduate the academy and come tous.
We cover everything fromreality-based training scenarios
to the administrative side ofthings, how to work the computer
(05:36):
programs that we work with outon the road.
And we just recently added afew extracurriculars to our
pre-deployment, which is why weexpanded it out to nine weeks.
We're actually proud to saythat we're sending our new
officers out from pre-deploymentalready with their patrol rifle
certification, their speedmeasurement certification and
CIT certified.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That's actually so smart.
I didn't know that because whenI went through it was not that
way.
And that makes so much sense,because taking people off of
patrol to go to these trainingsand that you might not get them
because they're either full orit just didn't work out with
everybody else's scheduleBecause it's not we don't have a
thousand officers to switcharound.
Yeah, and that was actually.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Sergeant Bean recognized that deficiency.
Just like you said, we'resending new guys out on the road
and then immediately havingthem put in for classes that
take them off the road asthey're just getting into their
schedule and getting into aroutine with things and putting
them in class.
We added that to ourpre-deployment, so they hit the
road running at this point.
So, once they finishedpre-deployment with us they go
out into the official term, forit is our officer training
(06:38):
evaluation program, otep forshort.
That's their FTO program.
They'll do 20 days of phase one, which is where they're kind of
just learning the job.
They're more of the secondaryofficer, they're training
officers, the primary officerand they're learning how things
work out in the real world.
Phase two they do another 20days with a second FTO.
That's where they're becomingmore of the lead role.
(07:00):
They take more of the primaryofficer role and then, after the
20 days in phase two, they moveto phase In.
Phase three they are, althoughwe have a training officer
riding with them in the car,they're there for observation
only.
The officer trainee is incharge of the calls that they go
to dispatching themselves to,whatever it may be, and they
handle everything from start tofinish on the calls.
(07:22):
The FTO is just there toobserve, rate how they're doing
on those last seven days.
Once they finish those sevendays they're ready to head on
their own.
We do have a phase four FTOwhere we just follow up them
over the next few months.
Just make sure thateverything's going well with
them If we need to get out therewith them on a few calls.
We do just a follow-up phase tomake sure everything is being
retained properly and thatthey're doing well and set up
(07:44):
for success.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, that's great, it's awesome.
It's really necessary to makesure that officers are safe to
go out on their own, because wedon't have the ability to go
back after we make decisionsthat could potentially harm you
or somebody else.
So, that's why there's so muchtraining is making sure that
everyone is truly squared away,at least as best as they can be
Right, you're always going to goto different calls and things
(08:06):
that you haven't experiencedbefore you might not know what
to do, but just having the basicsafety down is so important.
You can look up whatever statestatute you need later, but
being able to go make thosesplit-second decisions and have
the training to back you up isreally what's crucial, which is
why we have so much added.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Yeah, those split-seconddecisions like you said.
That's really what we want toget them ready for in those
pre-deployment and then the OTEPphases.
And, like you said, cape CoralPolice Department does a
phenomenal job of putting thoseprograms in place and setting
those guys up for success asthey come out on their own.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And I think it's important that people who either
have interest in being a policeofficer or even just people at
home who are curious how thedepartment works, know how much
training goes into this, thisisn't a thing where we get
someone off the street and inthree weeks they're on the road.
This is an extensive process.
There's a lot that goes into itand there are times where
people will graduate from thePublic Service Academy.
(09:04):
They'll come into our training,they'll go into the FTO part of
the training and not make it,and we have to dismiss them
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, yeah, and it's like you said.
It's a grueling process and wedo have high standards here at
the Cape Coral Police Department.
We want the best of the best.
Our community expects that ofus, and we want to make sure
that we're putting the rightpeople out there to get the job
done safely and professionallyand that extended training does
afford us the opportunity tomake sure that maybe somebody is
(09:33):
really good in a classroom.
But once they get out there andyou have to make decisions in
an ever-evolving world,sometimes not everybody's cut
out for it, and so there aretimes when we do have to dismiss
people from the OTEP program.
We always want everybody tosucceed and we try to do
everything we can to geteveryone to succeed, but in the
(09:53):
end we got to make sure thatwe're putting quality officers
out there and upholding thestandards of the department.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
For sure.
And I think it's one thing,like you mentioned, for someone
to be in a classroom setting andsay all the right things and
when you know the tensionsaren't heightened, and all of
that in a controlled setting toknow what to do.
But it's when you're in themoment and there's tensions are
high and things are gettingcrazy, knowing and falling back
on the instinct and that thatinstinct is the right thing.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
And we let our officers know, even when they
finish the OTEP program.
You're still going to belearning.
Like it's common phrase to say,you don't really know how to be
a cop until you've done yourfirst three years, because there
are so many variants ofcircumstances and situations and
everybody's going to reactdifferently every time you go on
a call, even if it's the samecall type.
(10:40):
So having the training is great, but there's nothing like that
real world experience andgetting out there and seeing how
different people react todifferent circumstances.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Absolutely, and it's so different.
When I went through the academyand then we graduated, me and
my buddy looked at each other.
They're like they're giving usguns now.
Because in the academy we hadthese blue training guns, and
then, all of a sudden, it'sgraduation day and they give you
your real gun and we're likethey trust us with these.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
It could be a real reality check.
Yeah yeah, they hand you abadge and a gun and it's an
immense responsibility.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah yeah, there's a big difference between the book
smarts and the street smarts.
You can learn anything you wantin the academy.
You can be at the very top ofyour class and you still might
not be the best cop, and that'ssomething that, luckily, I think
a lot of people recognize forthemselves.
I don't know that there's a lotof people that we necessarily
have to be like.
You're out, hopefully at least.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah, like you said, there's a lot of self-reflection
takes place when you're in thatOTEP program and you're getting
out there and you'reexperiencing A lot of our guys
come to us straight out ofcollege and they don't really
have any real life experienceyet and they get out there and
they start experiencing thingsthat they've never had the
opportunity to be placed inthose kinds of situations before
in their life.
So a lot of self-reflectiontakes place on that and during
(11:57):
that FTO OTP phase and somepeople decide that it's just not
for them.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, it's a huge learning curve, Like sometimes
the lights don't really turn onfor a lot of people until two,
three years.
That's to feel trulycomfortable.
Know that you're going to acall doing the right thing
because you can be a cop at 21.
We go to calls all the time.
What does a 21-year-old haveany business going to this
domestic with these 45-year-oldmarried couple?
They haven't been married butyet they have to give them
(12:24):
marriage advice and hope thatpeople listen to them.
It's finessing all of yourcommunication skills that you
might not have yet.
There's a lot that goes into itto really make a successful
police officer.
That goes past what you do.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
I think you said it there withthe communication skills, and
that's something that we try tobuild upon in the pre-deployment
and in the OTEP phase is, wecan teach you policy and
procedure all day long, but ifyou can't talk to people, you're
not going to excel at this job,and so we do a lot of that
reality-based training and wetry to put them in uncomfortable
(12:57):
situations during that trainingto build those communication
skills and give our officers theverbal equipment.
Would you say, that they canuse that on the road to solve a
lot of issues instead of havingto use their tools?
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, hey, that is.
Maybe you guys know that I camefrom Maryland where they had
all these use of forceretraining, but one of the
actually most efficient thingsthat they said is, your first
line of defense is actually yourverbal communication.
That's the first tool in yourtool belt that you should at
least try to use.
I mean situation dependent.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Yeah, no, you're 100% correct.
If we can handle a situationjust using our communication
skills, that's always going tobe the best outcome, and so,
like I said, we try to instillthat upon our guys and make sure
that they understand.
That's an important step in theprocess.
It should be the first step,and it's a very important one.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Have there been a lot of recent issues with anything?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
We're very fortunate here in Cape Coral to have an
extremely supportive community.
So, yeah, we don't deal with alot of the unrest that some of
the other areas of the countryexperience, and we're very
fortunate in that.
So, no, we haven't seen a lotof issues.
Of course, there's always goingto be mistakes, things happen.
(14:14):
Things happen super rapidly outthere, a lot faster than
someone who's sitting at a deskwatching the video can really
process how those situations gofrom bad to worse really quickly
out there on the road.
We're all human right andmistakes are made.
But again, I think we do aphenomenal job here of giving
(14:35):
them the tools to get out thereon their own and the experience
and understanding of how tohandle those situations.
And beyond that, when thosemistakes do happen, we have a
phenomenal training unit who'sable to bring those people in,
have the proper conversations,the proper remedial training or
whatever it may be, to make surethat those issues aren't a
(14:56):
continuing thing.
We take care of themimmediately, we recognize them
quickly and we take the actionsthat we need to correct any
potential mistakes.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, that's great.
That's so important.
I think that you're out theredoing a phenomenal job.
I know it hasn't been too long,but having somebody who has the
ability to just communicatethings but also be transparent
with everything and to bestraightforward.
Hey look, this needs to befixed.
I think having both of thoselike mentorship, but also kind
(15:26):
of like a firm hand in what'sgoing on is really great,
absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, like you said again, communication is key and
I think it's super importantthat when we're talking to the
guys and covering issues that weare straightforward with, them.
Hey, this is what you did wrong,but this is how we're going to
fix it.
And we try to have thoseconversations be productive.
We don't want to have justmeaningless conversation, just
to have the conversation.
(15:52):
We want to make sure thatthey're productive and that
we're correcting those issuesand that not only are we
correcting the issues, but theofficer also understands why.
They get the why of why we'regoing over it or what the issue
was.
We want them to understand itbecause when you understand
something, you're much lesslikely to make that mistake
again, as opposed to just hey,you did this wrong, do this next
time.
(16:12):
Well, if you don't understandwhy you have to do it that way
next time, you're more apt tomake that mistake again.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
So that makes sense.
I do have a question.
I do have a question.
Is there anything you missabout kind of being in the
action?
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah it is.
It's always fun getting outthere.
That's the great thing aboutbeing a cop is every day is
different, right?
You know you never know whatyou're going to get into.
You never know when that toneis going to go off and things
are going to hit the fan andit's going to be time to use all
those skills that you've beentaught.
So you do miss that.
Sometimes.
You miss the adrenaline dumpsand the camaraderie that comes
with being in those situations.
You deal with certain things asa police officer that 99% of
(16:51):
the population will never haveto deal with and you do form
bonds going through those things.
I'm not going to equate it tothe military, because obviously
they go through a wholedifferent set of circumstances,
but that brotherhood, thatfamily, that community that you
build, going through thoseexperiences that not everybody
goes through, is a special thing.
So you do miss getting intothings like that and having
(17:13):
those experiences with yourbuddies.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, at least you still have SWAT.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
It's not like you're just sitting behind a desk all
the time.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
You get to go out and have fun and train.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, and that's something that I love doing?
Sitting behind a desk, all thetime you get to go out and have
fun.
Yes, yeah, and that's somethingthat I love doing.
I've been on the team, like Isaid, for 11 years now and I
love every second of it.
Yeah, I have no intention ofcoming off the team anytime soon
.
It's one of my favorite aspectsof the department.
It's just another level of thatbrotherhood.
When you go through thatphysical training and those kind
(17:41):
of scenarios with the SWAT team, you really build a bond and we
have a great team with greatleadership and it's a real joy,
honestly.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
It's kind of like you got the best of both worlds.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I do, I do.
I would say that, yes, yeah,I've been very lucky in my
career.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
It's kind of a reality check.
I bet too to be like wait, nowI'm in charge of all these
people you know.
It kind of is like oh so.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I'm in charge of them now.
Yeah yeah, when I first gotpromoted and I went out on my
first shift as a patrol sergeant, that was a bit of a reality
check.
You sit there and you're likeoh man.
When something goes wrong, I'mthe guy that's going to come in
and make sure that it gets fixedand everything is going right.
It is a weight ofresponsibility but luckily, like
I said, I've had a lot ofopportunities to do a lot of
things with the department andgain that valuable experience.
(18:24):
And even when you become asergeant, we have a sergeant
training evaluation program.
So it's almost like an FTO forthe sergeants and they go step
by step with you on what you'regoing to encounter as a sergeant
and how to handle certainsituations.
A big part of it as a sergeantis the administrative side.
A lot of people don't realizethat it's not just you're out
(18:45):
there.
You're worried about yourpeople, making sure that they're
okay and they're safe andeverything they're doing is what
they're supposed to be doing.
But the administrative side ofit is a whole nother beast.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes to
make sure that things arerunning efficiently, and that's
the big reality check as asergeant is getting in the weeds
with all that paperwork andrealizing oh man, I think that's
probably like one of thebiggest wake up calls to a lot
of cops is it's oh, it's notjust out there in the action
doing this, and that all thetime it is so much
administrative paperwork.
(19:14):
Yes, a call.
You don't just go to the calland fix everything.
You usually have to do a reportafter.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Absolutely yeah yeah.
But to do a report after?
Absolutely yeah yeah.
But a lot of paperwork goesinto police work that people
don't realize.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
But it's important.
So very well, we appreciate you.
Is there anything else that youwere thinking of that you
wanted to add in?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Not really.
I appreciate you guys having meon.
It's fun.
I enjoyed it, so you know good.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
See you quick and pain.
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