Cape CopCast
Welcome to "The Cape CopCast," the official podcast of the Cape Coral Police Department.
Hosted by Officer Mercedes Simonds, and Lisa Greenberg from our Public Affairs team, this podcast dives into the heart of Cape Coral PD's public safety, community initiatives, and the inner workings of our police department. Each episode brings you insightful discussions, interviews with key community figures, and expert advice on safety.
Cape CopCast
Chief's Chat #2: Traffic Safety Initiatives & Honoring Local Veterans
What if our roads could be safer with just a little extra caution? Chief Anthony Sizemore joins us for a reflective episode of "Chief's Chat" on the Cape CopCast, where we dissect the week's local and national events. From celebrating the impressive voter turnout in Cape Coral to addressing recent traffic incidents on Embers Parkway and Burnt Store Road, we cover it all. Learn about the police department’s strategic role in managing traffic safety and construction challenges, and why staying within speed limits is more crucial than ever. Plus, we add some fun with our 'Movember' celebration, where our grooming policy takes a twist to support the American Cancer Society.
This week, we also honor Veterans Day, spotlighting the significant contributions of veterans in our community. With Officer Jeff Karau, a proud veteran of the Army National Guard, leading the Veterans Day Parade as Grand Marshal, we share the pride in hiring former service members. Their dedication, teamwork, and resilience enrich our police force in countless ways. And let's not forget our incredible volunteers with diverse backgrounds who bring unique perspectives to our department.
So welcome back to the Cape Cop cast. Today we have another special edition of Chief's Chat with Chief Anthony Sizemore, and today we're just going to kind of do a week in review of the things that we've had going on. We've had a pretty big week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, happy Friday. Yeah, it's been a good week A big week for the country with the election and a big week locally with our city council election. So just a big kudos to Cape Coral, in particular, southwest Florida as a region for our participation in elections. We historically are very high, so that was good. We have new council members that are coming on board. We're excited for that, and I will stay out of the national one other than to say congratulations to everybody who voted.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just like to see everybody come out and vote. You know it's good to just do a little bit of research, educate yourself and then go out and vote for who you want. That's the whole part of you know. Like a representative democracy is you get to go out there and you be a part of choosing who you get and what you get.
Speaker 2:So that's why we're the best country in the world.
Speaker 1:Yep, and then I think we had a couple other things I know kind of more. In the beginning of the week we had a couple accidents going on and things like that and it seemed like it was all in one section. I know people were very concerned. It was Embers Parkway and Burnt Store Road. There were several kind of more intense accidents than usual, but they weren't quite what they seemed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a very unique mix. On Burnt Store Road right it's a hurricane evacuation route. It's a main thoroughfare getting in and out of the city. On the western front, when you're going north, it's a good way to get to I-75 if you are not near the bridges or the eastern part of Cape Coral. So there's a good way to get to I-75 if you are not near the bridges or the eastern part of Cape Coral. So there's a lot of traffic on Burnstore Road. It's a higher speed limit and when you're on Burnstore Road it feels as if you're on a mini interstate sometimes. And the part that's unique is that it is crossed with neighborhood streets or collector roads or smaller surface streets, and what we find is it can be difficult to judge people's speed when you're entering onto Burnt Stool Road. There's construction up there. There's a lot going on that really requires people to take a little bit of extra caution and unfortunately we had an accident there.
Speaker 1:Right and well. I think one of the accidents wasn't even necessarily something that we could have prevented. Someone just rammed into the stop sign, which is unfortunate, but that's not necessarily an issue of enforcement. And then there was another really serious accident where they stopped at the stop sign. Sometimes you just don't see people coming. Sometimes they stopped at the stop sign. Sometimes you just don't see people coming. Sometimes they're true accidents.
Speaker 2:Right. If it was on purpose, it would probably be a criminal act where somebody tried to ram somebody.
Speaker 2:So we call them crashes, used to refer to them as accidents, because that's what they are it's an accident. You got the one where somebody hit the actual stop sign that goes in the stat column as a wreck at burn store and embers, when we we do you guys in the public affairs office do a really good job of putting out to the public that there's a road obstruction and there's a crash, and sometimes people will automatically see that that burn store and embers, there was a crash and their mind races to a fatality, an overturn, overturned vehicle, a lack of enforcement, a poor design of a road, when really a guy went off the road coming to a stop and hit the stop sign pole. We have those, up to and including the ones that I just alluded to, where people get in serious crashes.
Speaker 2:It is a challenging area and that's probably a symptom of the growth and a lot of people in an area that changes. So when you get familiar with the route or familiar with the flow, sometimes it will change based on the construction. So it's something. Just the simplest way to boil it down is, when you're in that area, a little bit of extra caution. The speed limit is the limit. It's not always the recommendation right. You are allowed to go a little bit below it, especially for caution, and that's what I would recommend really.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So in situations like these I know a lot of people bring up well you know, why don't you change it? Why don't you do something about it? That's not necessarily in our wheelhouse. Sometimes there are other actions that the DOT and stuff have to take. To kind of look at things a little more close.
Speaker 2:I think what you're trying to say is we get recommendations from the public on Facebook. Why don't you change that road? Why don't you redesign it? I don't, or the police department does not, have the. It's not our purview to change traffic flow on roads like that. There's state roads, local roads, county roads. Different entities are in charge of that, the MOT or management of traffic. That's an actual science that goes into that. We are a stakeholder and a contributing opinion group to MOT. We are not the sole decider on MOT and that particular intersection is one where I appreciate and can absolutely understand the frustration, the fear. Why aren't you as in me? I always take them as directed at me. It's not my call to do that, but I can commit 100% that my voice and our collective voices, the police department, will be represented in any stakeholder meetings on how MOT is is carried out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's just important to look at the totality of circumstances and stuff like that. It's easy to look at things and say, well, you've had a couple accidents there, and just the last month, but sometimes it's there's a little bit more that goes into it, just for people to consider.
Speaker 2:What I've found in about four years. This month will be four years as the chief. There is always a little more to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Speaking of a little more to it. It's no shave November and you've got a little more to it this month.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, Movember, which is something that's been pretty popular for maybe even longer than a decade, but I've been on the radar for it for about a decade where men in the country will grow facial hair, mustache, a goatee or a beard, and the intent was to raise awareness of cancers that are typically associated with men, and we've always participated in this since. It's been a thing right. But our policy years ago I would say probably five years ago was that men had to be clean shaven, with the exception of a well-groomed mustache. So it's not the 70s anymore, so most men don't wear a well-groomed mustache. We were clean shaven unless you were in an undercover capacity. So in the month of November, we permitted male employees to grow a beard, facial hair, and it was something to look forward to. Funny pictures on Facebook. Some people really can't grow one that well.
Speaker 2:And other people look really, really like an advertisement for like a grooming center. They look really good and everything in between. But about, like I said, about five years ago, we changed the grooming standards here where men are allowed to have a well-defined and trimmed beard or facial hair, and that follows a lot of forward-leaning departments in the state and in the country. So what do you do? Right, if you had a reward in one month of the year, but now the reward is the norm, how do you recognize Movember and still participate in that?
Speaker 2:So we did something a little bit tongue in cheek, where we altered our uniform policy and the policy states that you used to state you're allowed to have that all year long, the trimmed beard you know, defined, edging out of it and look presentable. Now we say you can do that every month except November. So the policy says no, no beard in November. However, the caveat is and this is the tongue in cheek part if you pay the beard tax, you pay about 20 bucks, I think it is. We collect that money and even our women in the building can participate as well. Not growing a beard participate, but-.
Speaker 1:Maybe there are people whose faces I don't want to see bare. Some people need a beard to really-.
Speaker 2:So you can help the fellas out the ones that have a beard and you don't want to see that baby face or you know, you just don't want to see that face anymore. You can pay or contribute to the 20. And it's all for fun, it's tongue in cheek, like I said, and everybody opts for it because they take a lot of time to grow their beard. They don't want to shave it and then grow it back, and we collect all of that money and then we donate it to the American Cancer Society to be in line with Movember.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's something really exciting we're doing this month and I think everybody's pretty excited to participate. I don't think anybody's going to complain about donating to cancer and getting to keep their beard.
Speaker 2:So it works out. It's a tax that people are more than willing to pay.
Speaker 1:Right. And then we have something else going on tomorrow. Tomorrow we have the Veterans Day Parade in Cape Coral. It's down on Cape Coral Parkway. There's so many high schools and veterans and different things like that JROTC that march in it and then just a lot of other community clubs and things like that. But one of the really exciting things that we have the honor of this year is one of our motors officers. Officer Jeff Caro is actually going to be the Grand Marshal this year, so he'll be leading the parade. Pretty excited about that.
Speaker 2:The whole thing is exciting. If you haven't been to the Cape Coral Veterans Day Parade, you're missing out. It's something that's been going on since I was a kid in the community. It's a big deal. We're a Purple Heart City. We're proud of our veterans, we're proud of the service of our fellow Cape Coral residents. And we shut the street down and it's just people from all walks of life that are veterans, family members of veterans, survivors of veterans and just celebrating the freedom that we have because of the sacrifice that they made by willfully enlisting in the armed forces. For us it's a great throwback to old Americana.
Speaker 2:If you want to go, people line the streets. There's floats, there's VIPs down there, we're there. The fire department's there. Partners with Lee County Sheriff's Office come. The VFW is there. Knights of Columbus If it's a group, they're there. And the weather should be cooperating. I know this weather system will be out, hopefully, and it's a great time. And you mentioned Jeff Carrow, who's a veteran himself. Just a fantastic story. He should be sitting in this chair to tell it, hopefully on a future episode. But I couldn't be more proud. I've known Jeff a long time since he started here. He's a great worker, embodies the spirit of what a veteran is service over self and I'm just really grateful that he's going to be recognized.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he has over 25 years in the Army National Guard and then he also has over 20 years here, so he just really knows what it's like to really devote his life to service.
Speaker 2:Part of the modern National Guard, he served overseas paratrooper. Just a really interesting story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's got a good story, but it's not just him, though. We actually hire a lot interesting story. Yeah, he's got a good story, but it's not just him, though. We actually hire a lot of veterans. You know, there's a really good thought behind it as to why we have so many.
Speaker 2:Sure, I'll give you the short answer and then I'll expound on it. The short answer is hiring veterans gives you great employees. That's period, that's the highlight. But getting into it, when you hire a veteran, you get somebody who willfully sacrificed, went down to the recruiting center, signed up, broke the comfort of home and enlisted to protect our freedoms, to be part of something bigger.
Speaker 2:Right in the beginning, in boot camp, you're assimilating with a large group of people that's diverse in background but singular in purpose and heart, and they know how to sacrifice, they are comfortable in the uncomfortable and they will have gone through so many things in their military service career. It could be a 10-year career, a full 25-year career, it could be four years and getting out. It could be combat deployment, it could be stateside deployment, it doesn't matter. A veteran then transferring that into police work. You already know that they know about teamwork, they know about sacrifice, they can take orders from somebody other than their parents, they can live on their own. They're responsible, mature, dedicated, coachable, teachable, dependable. It's a good get when you can hire a veteran.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I know when I was in the academy, we had a lot of veterans and our motto was embrace the suck, and I think that, switching from the military to law enforcement and things like that, you really know how to embrace the suck.
Speaker 2:Look at what we just went through right with Milton and two years ago with Ian. That is very uncomfortable, it's very outside of the norm and they are prepared to pack a bag, point them in the right direction and embrace it, as you say, and they are prepared and willing and able and eager to perform in the uncomfortable environment and proven to have delivered results.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. I mean, that's just one of those things. We'll have a lot of veterans who are also police officers that will be in the parade tomorrow and I think that will wrap up a pretty successful week, I think.
Speaker 2:It's been a great week. Just one last thought on the parade. There were questions. A couple of years ago Somebody asked you know, why are the police there? Why are the fire department there? Why is the sheriff's office there? It's not a police parade or a fire parade. It's an American parade. We're part of that and the people that we have in the parade are representative of all the armed forces. So we're celebrating the fact that the police department in your town supports veterans, but the people that are in it are our veterans or your veterans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's really cool, really important. This week we put out the tagline Are you a veteran? And then we asked for everyone you know police officers and volunteers to send in all the pictures of when they were deployed. We've had so many and they're all so interesting. Especially, some of the volunteers were in for a long time and they have kind of the old school pictures and it's that typical thing of a picture is, you know, is a story worth a thousand words, and some of those stories, like I'd love to sit down with them and talk about them.
Speaker 2:We have some fantastic volunteers here at the police department. If you haven't already got it in your to-do list on the podcast, grab a couple of them and talk to them about you know what makes their volunteerism here good? But their backstory, because they're not former police officers. These are people from all walks of life, veterans included, that bring such a wealth. That would be an interesting one too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's definitely next up on our list, but I think that wraps everything up. Thank you guys for joining us and listening to the Cape Copcast.
Speaker 2:Been a great week. Thank you, we'll see you next Friday.
