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 #7: Home Invasion Arrest, Hate Crime Update & the Week in Review
We're doing the week in review for this episode of the Cape CopCast "Chief's Chat" edition!
Hosts Lisa Greenberg and Officer Mercedes Simonds sit down with Chief Anthony Sizemore talk about:
- The arrest made in a home invasion and the importance of staying vigilant.
- The crucial role of technology and collaboration in solving crime and maintaining safety.
- The vandalism committed at a local home that's being investigated as a hate crime, how our collaboration with the local chapter of the NAACP has fostered transparency, and the award they presented the Chief.
- A tragic DUI-related crash in which a man is suffering life-threatening injuries, and how this highlights the need for safe driving as the holiday season approaches.
- The other crimes our department sees an uptick in around the holidays and how our department is maintaining visibility to prevent them.
- Our upcoming 'Shop with a Cop' event.
Thanks for joining us!
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Copcast Chief Chat Edition. I'm Lisa Greenberg.
Speaker 2:I'm one of your hosts and I'm Officer Mercedes Simons. Together we make up the Public Affairs Office. What are we talking about today, Chief?
Speaker 3:Well, it's Friday. It's been a busy week. We said last week I could predict it and we were right, so just want to chat about some of the things that were big in the news that people might want to wrap up on, or at least a status update and get them informed and ready for the weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I think this is kind of what Chief's Chat was intended for is, when we don't have a big topic that we're trying to get the public informed on is just kind of doing a week in review, a little bit of a wrap up, and kind of reminding people what we've been up to this week.
Speaker 2:We started talking last week about a home invasion and obviously that sounds really scary to every you know all the neighbors and stuff like that and they just kind of want to know in general what happened. And so we're lucky enough to be able to talk about at least one arrest that we've made, if we don't have another coming.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we believe a second one's coming, but one arrest was made, which is great. It's unbelievable work by detectives, right? You live in a neighborhood and there's a bunch of police cars and crime scene tape. It's scary, unnerving and you want to know what's going on. And you guys were able to put out the information to let people know there was a home invasion robbery, which is wow, right, if you live in that area.
Speaker 3:But it was a isolated, if you will right. I think we can go so far as to say that this was a narcotics related event, very isolated. One arrest was made, another one's imminent, but you don't want to get your guard down completely when you oh, it's isolated, they know each other. It's drug related, but we've had instances where people will hit the wrong house, right Right or, if God forbid, you get into a shootout. There's no invisible barrier for that that can spill out. So it's serious and just an awesome job by our detectives to interview, collect all the evidence, work on the digital forensic side, the human interview side, and put it all together so fast and make one arrest already with the other one coming. It's just a tip of the cap to them.
Speaker 1:It's such a important thing that I've been talking about actually with people that I know is like how all these people and I'm not sure exactly all the evidence that we had in this case, but the ring doorbells are literally can be lifesavers in cases like this, because it's those cameras that are on neighbors' houses that help in these cases and really in any crime really related to neighborhoods. My friends and I were just having a conversation about how this day and age, everyone should have a doorbell camera, Everyone should have some kind of surveillance on their home, because, whether it's for your own protection, to help your neighbor and things like that, it's just crazy, the advent of technology and you're thinking about these people, these criminals that are committing these crimes. It's almost silly to think that they would get away with it at this point because of all the cameras everywhere.
Speaker 3:Well, look at the case in New York with the CEO that was shot. The know, the eye in the sky, is everywhere, everywhere, and it's just been a tremendous benefit. Now there's a second side of that coin.
Speaker 3:When all of these privately owned surveillance cameras are out there, you really have to have a good partnership the police do with the community to get them to share, because we don't have the ability to completely big brother and go in and take it. We have to work with them and we're very fortunate that the community and the police work together. You know that's our and our mission statement is that we partner together. But that partnership comes from not just saying it but putting in the work and earning that community benefit of the doubt that we're above board and working hard for them and by doing that they share that information and that eye in the sky and man, is it a game changer?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. If you have ring camera footage on something, even if you think it might not be relevant, don't be afraid to call and share it with us, because you never know, it could be a car that drove by two minutes later. That is actually really helpful to our investigation. If you look and you see something, even in the whereabouts of your neighborhood, and you think you might have something, just call and we'll take it. And if there's nothing in it, there's nothing in it, no harm done. But sometimes those are the cameras that help us really solve important cases.
Speaker 3:And you hit on something. Call, because I know there's different apps and there's like Nextdoor app and Neighbors app and there's an app embedded into Ring.
Speaker 2:It's like a.
Speaker 3:Ring neighborhood type, so we don't monitor that.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:So sometimes people will upload it and say, hey, check this out, but we just don't have the ability because there's so many of them that we ask you if you think it's important, like you said, call any of them that we ask you, if you think it's important, like you said, call.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we see on you know Facebook and stuff all the time and Cape Coral residents group of people posting things in these group chats but they don't actually call to let us know what happened and then they tag us. It's like you need to call as soon as it happens so that we can get on top of it, investigate, know what happened and a lot of times, if it's like a crime that's past occurred, that we can get on top of it, investigate, know what happened and a lot of times, if it's like a crime that's past occurred that we don't see anymore, there's not a whole lot that we can do, especially you know reckless driving and stuff that I see posted. It's important to call and you can't. We don't take reports from social media, so we take reports with real police officers.
Speaker 3:It's too hard. There's too many evolving apps and we just don't have somebody monitoring or mining them 24-7 to act as a call center. We have the call center. Culturally, now that's the way a lot of communication goes. It's great, it's excellent information sharing, but you still have to have an official channel to call us and that's the non-emergency number or 911. And if it's not an emergency 911, we can quickly push you over to the non-emergency number or 911. And we can. If it's not an emergency 911, we can quickly push you over to the non-emergency. But that's how you. That's the mechanism to get ahold of us. We also have a tip line, the anonymous tips and things like that, but those are direct communication to us. You know it's not out in the ether where we have to just grab it. It's it's not the most reliable. We see it sometimes if we happen to be on there for a purpose but we don't have the ability and it's not monitored 24-7.
Speaker 1:Right, and one of the other things that we've been getting a lot of questions about and I think our community has really been interested in is the case of the gentleman who had racist language spray painted on his home and his home was vandalized. And we've had some media reaching out asking about that, and we have assured them that our detectives are still investigating this case as a major priority to us and it's not something that we've forgotten about and that it is developing Absolutely not Developing to the point where I got an update on it yesterday and the lead detective in it has got some new information, very positive information, so I'm pretty confident that a good resolution is going to come from that.
Speaker 3:You mentioned that the partnership we have with the community was really highlighted in this one, where the local branch of the NAACP reached out as they were concerned about the context of the crime. Right, there was racial language used, so there was questions in the community whether this was a hate crime or not. A hate crime and the easiest way to boil this down is a hate crime is not a standalone charge. If you open the statute book, there's no hate crime, statute number XYZ. What a hate crime is is a penalty enhancer, so you have to have your baseline crime. So if you smacked me right here on the Cape Copcast, that would be a battery. If you did it because of race, sex, class, any type of federally protected status, and that was your motivator for it, it's still a battery, but when it comes time for sentencing, the hate crime enhancer would go in.
Speaker 3:So oftentimes people are confused. If they're in this particular case, you're the victim of this felony criminal mischief, which is the statutory term for a vandalism. So it was very, very high dollar, tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage. The report is actually a criminal mischief. So the victim in the case was looking for the hate crime element. The hate crime element comes in after, like we talked about. So I met with the victim and I also met with the NAACP, who was concerned that there was a possibility that we weren't entertaining the hate crime element or, worse yet, trying to cover it up. And I explained to them what I just explained to you that absolutely not. And then my opinion as the police chief and as a human being yes, the elements are there for the hate crime enhancement, but at present we didn't have the suspects under arrest for the criminal mischief to then work with the state attorney's office to layer on top that hate crime element.
Speaker 3:So once that was explained and all of the efforts that we're putting in which their organization and the community at large just wants equal treatment for everybody, and once we assured them that we go full speed for every victim, regardless of circumstance and this case was no different and that we believe that there were hate crime elements to it, they were just relieved and they went so far as to. I was blown away and humbled by it. But we had a council meeting on Wednesday night and the NAACP showed up and presented me with an award for the work in that case and just an overall partnership with the community. And what was important is I don't like that kind of attention. That's part of my job, but I made sure and I'll make sure here on the Cape Cop cast that we say that I'm the recipient of it or the custodian of the award, but it's really representative of the work that all the men and women do at the Cape Coral Police Department every day, 24-7, 365.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Treating everybody the way that you would like to be treated.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that's one of the biggest things is just recognizing something for exactly what it is and starting that conversation. If you had never started that conversation, I don't think that there would be that level of transparency and care and trust that we have built as to why you got awarded with that.
Speaker 3:I was really humbled and honored and it was a great event before the council meeting on Wednesday to accept it on behalf of everybody that works right here to do the right thing.
Speaker 1:It was awesome, it was really nice. I was there for the recognition and it was really nice of them to do that. One other thing that I know we had a lot of questions about and a lot of people saw we had a crash this week on Beach Parkway. Unfortunately, someone was driving and swerved into a bike lane where a pedestrian was walking and that pedestrian ended up having to be hospitalized. And so, of course, anytime there's a crash like that and there's a lot of people who see the traffic, backups and things like that we get a lot of questions about it. It was definitely an awful circumstance. Thankfully, the person was arrested and we did. Our officers did determine that it was a DUI.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was absolutely as swift as it could be. The victim that got hit was walking with his family and the family was there to witness that. So being able to tell the wife immediately after that we were able to make an arrest hopefully gives them some semblance of justice in this case. But really it's just so tragic and unfortunate. You know, we just hope that he ends up being okay For sure.
Speaker 3:We really do and it serves as a DUIs. Unfortunately happen all year long.
Speaker 3:We have a dedicated staff that goes out there and looks to detect them before a tragedy like this, but unfortunately you have tragedies that occur, a dedicated staff that goes out there and looks to detect them before a tragedy like this, but unfortunately you have tragedies that occur and this case got a lot of attention. And what can you do to take something and make it make it helpful, right? As horrible as this case is the ability to use it to show everybody and really scare people straight that there's a lot of holiday parties this time of year. There's people that are out a couple times a week for events and corporate parties and neighborhood parties and work parties.
Speaker 3:There's a little bit more alcohol involvement, right now right, just because of the holidays, so it's even more important for people to know that there's a little bit more alcohol involvement right now, right, just because of the holidays, so it's even more important for people to know that there's ride share services, there's taxi services, there's a designated driver program. It's not new. A lot of this stuff is as old as going out itself. But you really have to be careful for what can happen to you, right? And then you have this scenario where it's the absolute worst case scenario, where somebody is seriously injured, life-threatening injuries.
Speaker 3:When you look at the human side of it, it's a family walking, and I doubt seriously that this person that hit him woke up that day and said I'm really looking forward to doing the most horrific thing I can do today. Absolutely not. It's totally preventable. There's so many opportunities to get a safe way home, and this is the time of year where people who are not going out all the time are going out and it could be amateur hour out on the road and just totally inexcusable. I am grateful that our officers that specialize in serious traffic crash investigations were able to make an arrest, so quickly but it still doesn't erase what happened.
Speaker 3:That can absolutely be prevented.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the thing with DUIs too, is? It's not the hardened criminals that go out to kill people, it's people who don't think about their actions. They're just careless, and then the worst thing possible happens, and then you're stuck dealing with that for the rest of your life. It's a great time of year, right?
Speaker 3:When the weather's good people are out walking dogs and kids are going to be out of school here in about another week, so it's going to be packed and there's just no reason for it. I stop short of saying it's a tragic accident, because it's a willful action by the people to do that, and if we didn't have the ability to get home safely, that'd be one thing. But there's so many different options than that and we just hope that this is a real shining example for everybody out there to please be careful, make a better choice.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I know our guys are out there, like you said, doing their best to try to prevent these kinds of things from happening. Around the holidays we also see another crime kind of uptick when it comes to the retail thefts and things like that, and I know we're doing some preventative steps when it comes to that as well.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. We have people out at all of the major hubs and shopping centers. Not everybody shops online at the super targets, at Walmart super center, all of our our smaller retail hubs where people are doing Christmas shopping. It's a real opportunity for people to become victims.
Speaker 3:There are people who prey on that. So we have heightened presence. If you would, we put extra officers out there on bicycles, on foot, patrol, driving around just to keep you safe. Be another set of eyes and ears, some electronic surveillance but they're not everywhere. Every minute, every time.
Speaker 3:It's a good opportunity to remind people watch your surroundings right. Don't always walk out of the store on your phone thinking about your next thing. You need to pay attention, look around. If something looks suspicious, go back in, report it to the staff. If you see our officers out there, flag us down or call us Right. Just be mindful of where you're walking. You know there could be somebody lurking in the parking lot. Looking. We don't have a high instance of that, but we do have that. You know we're just like a lot of other communities that wouldn't have that any other time of year. But there's a lot of people, just like a lot of other communities, that wouldn't have that any other time of year. But there's a lot of people out with a lot of merchandise and a lot of things on their mind and it's a good distraction for people to become preyed upon. So we just ask you to be vigilant and help us out.
Speaker 1:Pay attention to your surroundings people. Is there anything else you guys can think of?
Speaker 3:Tomorrow Shop with a Cop oh of course.
Speaker 1:How could I forget the best day of the year?
Speaker 3:And for those who don't know what Shop with a Cop is, there are underprivileged children in our community that are nominated by family members, teachers, school resource officers that otherwise would probably not have the Christmas that you and I, or you at home, remember from our childhood, and what we do is the officers will pick up the child at home, take them to Walmart on Del Prado. We have plenty of community sponsors that help us. We buy gift cards for the children, we shop with them and they get gifts for their brothers, sisters, aunt, uncle, grandmother, parents and we really encourage them to get gifts for themselves, and I don't think I've ever been to one in the 20, we've been doing it for 25 years, something like that. Every one that I've been to there hasn't been an instance where an officer doesn't reach into their own pocket and help out the kid. It's a great bonding experience. It's just wonderful to see the kids have a Christmas that they otherwise wouldn't have. And that's tomorrow and I'm excited.
Speaker 2:And it's fun.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Every time we go. It's fun. You know they're always goofing off picking up toys. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Everybody talks about the kids' faces and the officers' faces. There's something that if you're going to be there, look at some of the other shoppers that don't realize that we're doing it and then they're like what's going on? And then they see it and to see the adults who are unaffiliated with the event really brighten and it just helps the entire shopping experience at the store. It's really cool.
Speaker 1:For sure. I know this can be a stressful time of year for a lot of people. Our officers are busy, so it's kind of nice that this is a little fun break and something that they can look forward to as well.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, we're looking forward to it, and I guess that wraps it up for us this week. Chief, it does. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3:Again. You got it. You guys have a great weekend. Have a great weekend at home.
Speaker 1:And we'll see you next time. Have a.
