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 #13: New Ordinances for Public Safety & Another Life-Saving Response
In this episode of the Cape CopCast 'Chief's Chat,' we're going deeper into new city ordinances aimed at enhancing public safety with Chief Anthony Sizemore.
Hosts Lisa Greenberg and Officer Mercedes Simonds explore the success of a new ordinance targeting outdoor camping on public property, focusing on the balance between providing resources to those in need and maintaining public order. With an emphasis on support over punishment, we share how this proactive approach intends to tackle the root causes of homelessness. Also on the agenda is an upcoming ordinance that seeks to redefine access to city-owned facilities, ensuring public spaces remain peaceful and efficient.
We end our episode on an inspiring note to talk about our officer's life-saving response to an opioid crisis. This story underscores the unwavering commitment of our team, prioritizing the well-being of our citizens in critical moments and reinforcing our shared commitment to community partnerships.
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Cop cast Chiefs Chat Edition. I'm one of your hosts, Lisa Greenberg.
Speaker 2:And I'm Officer Mercedes Simons. Together we make up the Public Affairs Office. We have Chief on board today.
Speaker 3:Good morning ladies.
Speaker 1:Good morning, good to see you again, you too. Another day, another Chiefs Chat. I know there were a few things we wanted to get into today, and I think we want to start with the in enacting a prohibition on outdoor camping.
Speaker 3:That's a lot to say, but basically it's aimed at people that are camping on the street, setting up tents and living on the sidewalk or public property. We've always had the ability to prohibit or enable on private property and we have cooperating businesses downtown or throughout the city it doesn't have to be downtown that will sign a letter authorizing us to enforce trespass on private property. And what this legislation did, or what this new ordinance did, was allow the enforcement or trespass authority for prohibition on outdoor camping on public land, and it's been in effect for a couple of weeks and it is working quite well. I believe we've had two arrests, I'll say, and that was for people who were given the opportunity to move along. You can't outdoor camp provide you with any opportunity that you would like to get into the continuum of care veteran services, homeless, outreach services, any type of non-governmental organization we can get you there.
Speaker 3:They willfully chose not to do that, returned or remained, and one was arrested in the downtown area. It in the downtown area, and then we had a homeless camp in the northeastern part of our city that a lot of people forget about unless you live out there. That, hey, what about us too? And we were called for a disturbance. So our officers were summoned there because of a fight between two people or altercation. And while our officers were there, they proactively noticed and enforced the outdoor camping ordinance there and moved somebody along. They were arrested for the fight or the battery, but then the other participants were told to move on. So it's not always an arrest, and arrest is not the preferred method. Right, you can't arrest your way out of a homeless issue, but it does give you a little bit of teeth to enforce the laws that are on the books, and this new one on the books appears. Early returns are good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wanted to definitely stress the fact that the arrest is kind of the last resort. We try to work with people to get them the resources they would need to be in a better situation. That's kind of the last resort.
Speaker 3:Right. We like to attack root causes and fix root causes, rather than continually try to tamp down symptoms.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly. I know there's another ordinance that's in the works.
Speaker 3:The infrastructure or the pathway to put it in place is in effect and we are developing internal or the city is developing internal policies on it and essentially what this new one is is not too far off from the outdoor camping prohibition but it's more of an interior of city-owned facilities. So it's a definition of three different criteria. You have open public forum and I'll get into what these three are limited public forum and non-public forum. And when you think of a city building, think of City Hall. Right, you have all three of those components within one building or under one roof. So behind the counter where the employees work, or break rooms, or on the second floor, those are all considered non-public forum, meaning it's a publicly constructed and owned building but there is no expectation or right to be behind the counter or where individuals are working.
Speaker 3:That's a non-public form. There is a limited public form which is on the other side of the counter. So you walk into City Hall and you have to pay your water bill. You walk into the building and you are in a limited public form and the reason it's limited is because there are rules to it and the rules are open 730 to four. So it's not an open public forum before the doors unlock or after the doors close at the end of the night. There's also rules for decorum. You can't scream and shout and get into arguments and you can't if it's a really cold day. You can't get your sleeping bag and walk in and I'm going to sleep inside city hall for the night. So that's the limited public forum. But if you're abiding by the rules, you're there during normal business hours. You're there to pay bills or get information on a permit. It's wide open right.
Speaker 3:It's a public building and then there's open public forum. An open public forum would be the parking lot, the sidewalk, outside the front lawn, and to include this is an important one a city council meeting that is advertised open and ongoing. If it starts at five o'clock, that five o'clock that limited public forum or could be a non-public forum on the second floor of City Hall opens up to an open public forum, you're allowed to be there and you're allowed to do anything that the constitution allows you to do, provided you follow established and provided council rules. Right, you don't have the right to yell fire in a crowded theater, you don't have a right to slap someone in the face, but you have a right to go. You can take your phone out and video record at an open public forum, council meeting, open public forum sidewalk street. You do not have the right to go behind or enter or video record or do anything in a non-public forum. So think about behind the closed doors or in work areas in City Hall. In work areas in city hall, but in the limited public forum. You have the ability to be there to conduct business, but you do not have the right to harass other people, other patrons, other citizens that are trying to get stuff done or workers doing their job.
Speaker 3:So if you're 99.99% of our population who are using city facilities, it's not just city hall. I just use that as an example could be the when the yacht club gets, uh, reconstructed, the new, the new facility down there is a limited public forum right inside. You can go in there when there's events or when you reserve it. It's a public building but it's not open all the time and it's not restricted 100 either. So every city facility is designated open, limited or non. And then some facilities like the police department, the lobby is a limited public forum, outside is open and then behind the lobby is non. So it's going to take time to develop policies because there's a lot of different facilities across the city. We want to make sure our interpretation, or the people who live in those buildings and work in those buildings, interpretation, is trained. And then obviously we're going to make sure our staff are trained so that if there are any breaches in security or people that would happen to run afoul of the law, we educate first, enforce second and try to make everybody safe.
Speaker 1:What's the goal of this new ordinance that's in the works?
Speaker 3:The goal is to really make it easy to define where people can be and what expectations are when they're there, and the goal is to keep you safe. If you have business at City Hall or at Parks and Rec or at an athletic field, or you want to go to a city council meeting, you know what you can do and what others around you can do, so that you can be safe and you can enjoy the experience you can get the most out of your government. That's what we're here for is serving everyone, and we want to make sure that we can provide you with the best service, and providing you with the best service is making sure that other people don't impede your ability to receive and enjoy the experience of the full complement of governmental service. One thing I wanted to add.
Speaker 3:It's not a new concept and this isn't some novel law or legislation that the city of Cape Coral has come up with. This is something that's been on the books. Other municipalities in Florida have this. It's been enacted. It's been on the books. Other municipalities in Florida have this. It's been enacted, it's been enforced, it's been challenged and it's been upheld Right.
Speaker 2:Now to be clear this is different from the HALO law. The HALO law.
Speaker 3:That's a law enforcement-specific law, gotcha, so we could be anywhere doing police work. We can't just be having lunch or hanging out or just on the street corner. But if we're actively engaged in law enforcement services, there is a new legislation that's out that the governor signed a state law called the HALO law. This is similar in that police are involved in it, but really it's a totally different animal. This is a public-driven, public protection ordinance. They're related because the law enforcement are actors in many different plays and these plays all got released right around the same time, so it's the timing of them. With the prohibition on outdoor camping, the limited public forum and then the HALO law, there's a lot of legislation that has come out that's very similar, like you said, but totally different animals.
Speaker 1:There is a goal, though, a common goal of this will help people get their jobs done in a. In a sense, you know, if you're at city hall and you're trying to do something and there's someone that's trying to disrupt that, this will help. So they both have that similar goal.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:It clears up some ambiguity where if, mercedes, you were at the counter trying to get information on a permit for a birthday party at a public facility that you wanted to rent the pavilion, and Lisa comes in and she's screaming and yelling about her electric getting turned off or water bill or some utility or anything, or she could just be fed up and not going to take it anymore with the government and could be impeding your ability to get done what you need to get done.
Speaker 3:And in the past there was some ambiguity where Lisa's spouting off that this is my taxpayer dollars Pay for this building. I can be here, you can't make me leave. I can be as loud as I want. I can ruin your experience and impede your ability to get done what you need to get done, and that's simply not the case. That is not accurate. It is a limited public forum where you're allowed to be in there. You're allowed to be upset. We can't legislate emotions, but we can legislate behavior and your outbursts or your, your actions of behavior cannot impede upon the rights of Mercedes trying to get done what she needs to get done.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry for my outburst.
Speaker 2:You need to calm down, Lisa.
Speaker 1:No, but that paints a pretty clear picture of kind of one of the goals of this and I know we always like to end on a positive note and we had a pretty impactful situation with one of our officers this week. He actually saved someone's life who was experiencing a drug overdose.
Speaker 3:We had a single vehicle accident, a crash where a car went into a body of water in the northeastern part of our city. Our officers responded and immediately saw what happened without any hesitation. We don't stop and say well, I wonder why they went in the water? Did they get run off the road? Are they having some kind of what some people would say a positive experience? Story type medical event or an overdose would be a negative story, type minute. They don't do that. They see somebody in danger, somebody needs help, throw it in park, jumped in the water. They were unconscious in the vehicle, submerged, broke the window at his own peril, cut his arm, got the woman out and the individual was given um nar, brought back and transported to the hospital.
Speaker 3:So the things that I like from the story is just, it was a newer officer, not a super long veteran. So the people that we're bringing on board are great people. They're buying into the message of partnering with the community, and when we talk about that partner with the community, you, the community, you have an idea in your head what that means. Sometimes that means a food drive or all these different. Sometimes partnering with the community means the community is experiencing an overdose on an opioid in their car, in a ditch. They're looking for a partner, whether they know it or not.
Speaker 3:Right, and partnership with the community means going in there and busting that window and getting that person out and bringing them back to life. That's partnership with the community also, and the fact that our officer bought into that, immediately sprung into action, didn't stop to ask any socioeconomic questions how did you get here? You need to make better life choices. There was none of that. It was let's save this person, let's get their life saved, and it's just a commendable act. I couldn't be more proud of the actions of this officer, because that one act on the side of the road when nobody's around and no time to think about it, embodies all 400 people that work here, both civilian and sworn, absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's just, it's having integrity and it's the ability to hop in when no one's watching and to be able to save somebody. And at that point, especially when opioids are involved, then we can take things a step further and they can hypothetically get the help that they need to if they're willing to receive it in that situation. Obviously, if you're in that spot, then you probably need help and resources after that, and that's what we're also there to give in those situations, right.
Speaker 3:And to anybody that's asking what about any criminal charges for driving under the? That is being done, that is being investigated. That is definitely one of the priorities, but the ultimate priority was saving the life and getting this person medical help, and then we'll work on the consequences. That's not going to get washed away, but the important takeaway that I had is that when the default setting is on for our officers, it is to save lives and to help and make this community great.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Anything else, Chief.
Speaker 3:No, it's been another week.
Speaker 1:Another week. It seems like these happen so fast and I forget that it's already the end of the week.
Speaker 2:It's crazy. Time goes by really quickly, especially when we've got a lot going on, which, in a growing city, we've had a lot going on. We have.
Speaker 3:We have, and congratulations to anybody who has Monday President's Day off. Enjoy the three-day weekend.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Lisa, don't be upset with me, don't be upset.
