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
Property Crimes, Honor Guard, and the Joke of the Day with Detective Jenna Newton
The latest episode of the Cape Copcast welcomes Property Crimes Unit Detective Jenna Newton, who takes listeners on an eye-opening journey from the high-crime streets of Las Vegas to the canals of Cape Coral. Her story shows the contrasts between policing environments—trading two robberies per night and constant gang surveillance for unlocked garage doors and watchful neighbors.
Detective Newton's path wasn't always aimed at investigations. She originally aspired to work in the K9 Unit, but discovered a passion for digging deeper into cases. Now as a property crimes detective, she tackles vehicle burglaries and construction site thefts while educating the community about crime prevention. Her insider perspective on why criminals target Cape Coral—precisely because residents feel safe enough to leave doors unlocked—offers valuable insight for people looking to protect their property.
Beyond her detective work, Newton shares what makes the Cape Coral Police Department unique. From her service with the Honor Guard to her famous "joke of the day" that lightens the mood before shifts, you'll get a dose of humanity behind the badge. Her appreciation for Cape Coral's supportive community—where citizens regularly thank officers rather than antagonize them—highlights why she plans to retire in the same city where she serves.
Whether you're curious about law enforcement careers, crime prevention, or simply want to understand your local police department better, Detective Newton's candid conversation offers something for everyone. Her message to residents: don't hesitate to report suspicious activity. As she puts it, "It's better to call and have it be nothing than to wish you had called later."
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Copcast, the official podcast of the Cape Coral Police Department. I'm one of your hosts, Lisa Greenberg.
Speaker 2:And I'm officer Mercedes Simons. Together we make up the Public Affairs Office. Today we have a very special guest. We have Detective Jenna Newton.
Speaker 3:Welcome, thank you, how are?
Speaker 1:you.
Speaker 2:I'm good. You just recently became a detective, right Very recently.
Speaker 1:How's it going being a detective so far?
Speaker 3:It's going great. It's very busy but it's nice to dig into cases and you know work to put people in jail who ruin other people's lives and make their days harder.
Speaker 1:You're in property crimes right, correct, so you must be pretty busy.
Speaker 3:Yes, we have a lot of vehicle burglaries in this city.
Speaker 2:That's probably one of the most popular crimes that we have in Cape Coral. We don't have a ton of violent crime or anything like that, but property crime, I think, is probably the easiest because it's a crime of opportunity and we have a very safe city. So then, the more trusting that people are, the more they leave their doors and homes and things like that unlocked garages, and I think that that probably creates a lot more work for you.
Speaker 3:Yes, people on vacation who come here and they drop their level of safety and security and they yeah, they leave doors unlocked, they leave precious items in their cars and people take advantage of that and unfortunately they make some very hard days for people. We've had wallets taken where there's tons of credit cards and if you can't go buy anything that day and that's quite an inconvenience for people, so a lot of people say, oh, it's just property, the banks will pay them back, but it can ruin somebody's day, you know. And why let the bad guys go spend so much money when everybody works so hard for what they have?
Speaker 1:Especially these days when everything's so expensive. You know, absolutely. I know obviously you came from patrol and we'll get to more on that in just a little bit, but I did want to ask did you always want to be a detective?
Speaker 3:Not always, I always. I love every aspect of police work, so I enjoy investigating, I enjoy putting bad people in jail and I enjoy working for good people who work hard. But no, I originally wanted to be in canine.
Speaker 1:You'd be good at that too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. Why? What was the change? Was it just kind of like it didn't suit you? It's a big time commitment, that's definite, but did it just not suit kind of what you wanted anymore?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think things just change and I really did start to enjoy the digging into different ways to investigate a crime. I have all the respect in the world for canines. It's how I met my husband. He was in canine for 18 years in las vegas. So, wow, um, that's how I met him, going out and decoying for him all the time. But, uh, no, it just kind of changed. Who knows, I might go to K-9 one day, but I enjoy investigations, I enjoy patrol. I would enjoy probably any part of the department, as long as it helps people in every aspect of our jobs do.
Speaker 1:She's a good jack-of-all-trades kind of person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. I mean, and that's the thing is like in law enforcement, I think, cape Coral, we have what? 27 years to retirement, so we have long careers and that's the fun, especially for cops that like to do, they get bored easily and you want to do and and start in patrol and love patrol and get good at it. That's always the thing is, I think it's important to stay there for a while, get good at it and then you can go on and do something different, but there's no need to rush any kind of positions or whatever you want to do. It's kind of as long as you work hard, you can probably get there, which I think is what you found.
Speaker 3:How long have you work hard? You can probably get there, which I think is what you found.
Speaker 1:How long have you been here now? Because you were in vegas before five years in april. Wow, yeah, that's awesome. I know it goes by so fast. It really does. I am curious when you were like growing up, did you want to be a cop?
Speaker 3:or that's awesome. I did. I was one of those nerds who would point things out to my parents and they would roll their eyes and be like why are you paying attention to that car? Well, it's been sitting there for 13 minutes and it's kind of odd.
Speaker 2:It's funny for people who like don't usually hang out with cops, and then you ride in the car with us and we just are like, oh well, that tag is wrong, oh, that person's doing that and they're not allowed to, and you just point out every single violation. And to people who are not typically with cops, it's like, well, just shut up.
Speaker 1:When I first started here, riding along with any of you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my mom still rolls her eyes every time she sees me back in. She's like you just can't pull into a parking spot like a normal person. No, I have to back in. She's saying it's been trained.
Speaker 1:And she says I need to go to the driving school so I can learn to be efficient at backing in, because I pull into everything.
Speaker 3:Driving school is beneficial for everyone.
Speaker 1:So you have always wanted to be a police officer. So you graduate high school. What's kind of the process after that?
Speaker 3:You graduate high school but a lot of people will then go to college for criminal justice because you can't be a police officer until you're 21. So there's some time in between that and then you go to the police academy and then go from there. Some people go to the police academy on their own, some people are sponsored, so they go to the department that they want to be in first and then they go from there. I went into the police academy for my last department and then, when I came out to Florida, I was able to do the EOT program, which was great. It's a bunch of training classes that we go through when we come from other departments and then they kind of sign you off to make sure that you're ready to be a cop in Florida, and it was a nice transition. It was a lot of different things where every state is different in how things are labeled.
Speaker 3:It might be a battery in one state and a salt in another state and it might mean different things per state that you're in, but you learn how Florida does things and then you go on with your department.
Speaker 1:EOT is equivalency of training. Yes, yeah, okay, cool, just making sure. So you were a cop in Vegas, that was your first department.
Speaker 3:Yes, I was there for five years.
Speaker 1:And what kind of things did you get into there? What were you doing years and?
Speaker 3:what kind of things did you get into there? What were you doing? So in Vegas was a lot of domestic violence calls, and I probably went to about two robberies a night.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:Which was nice to hear that when we came out here. That is not.
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 2:I'm much. I'm right there with you. Um, my old department was the same thing. So when people complain about traffic, it's like okay, yeah, I had to sit through that light twice. That was really annoying, but we're not going to two robberies a night. It's a real different way to look at things and then to also have and you can probably speak more on this a supportive community in comparison.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I know we've discussed it. Um, just how many people will pull up next to us and you don't know who they are. So you're cautious of what they want from you and you roll down your window and you're like I just want to say thank you for your service and it just it makes you feel good, it makes you want to work even harder for your community. But we're going to do that regardless, even if someone drives by and flips us off. But we'd prefer not to be flipped off, yeah for sure Were you on patrol in Vegas.
Speaker 1:I was yes Is that what you did the entire time.
Speaker 3:The entire time. Yes, I worked nights in a not so great area, a very gang area. That was also very different. When I came out here, I asked one of the detectives well, what's our gang problem like? And they're like gang problem, we don't have that. I said, yeah, sure, I know every big city says they don't have a gang problem, but they really do. And he said, no, we don't have a gang problem. I drove around the city, I checked out a lot of different cities before coming here and I noticed, hey, there's no graffiti. I spent a lot of time in Las Vegas documenting graffiti and understanding each of the gangs and what their graffiti meant and how. That meant that there might be a retaliation on another gang and we might, you know, have to watch for a possible homicide coming up. And luckily we don't have that here and we'd like to work to keep it that way.
Speaker 1:That's so interesting to me, Part of your job as a cop. You know I'm sitting here thinking, okay, if I'm going to be a police officer, these are the things I'm going to do, and that would never have crossed my mind. So that's so interesting. So you were on patrol there for five years. What made you decide to leave Vegas?
Speaker 3:So my husband is 14 years older than me, so he was approaching retirement and we were always vacationing in Florida. We don't like the cold and so my husband thought, well, let's go check out Florida. I said if we can find a good department in Florida in a place that's affordable, then we'll check it out. And we were just having breakfast one day and he's looking on Zillow and he's like, look at this little place with all this water. We could live on a canal. I said, yeah, right, we can't live on a canal. All those places in Florida are way too expensive. No one could afford to live in Florida.
Speaker 3:And we came down, checked it out and we're like, hmm, maybe if we buy one of the older houses in Florida we can afford it. And we made it happen and I applied November 2019. I came out and tested and they called me on Christmas Eve Okay, and said, hey, are you able to come down here next month, which was interesting because they also called me this last Christmas Eve to be a detective. So good day, wow, that's so awesome.
Speaker 1:Christmas Eve is a good day for you. That's so cool.
Speaker 2:I got called on Christmas Eve to work a detail.
Speaker 1:I didn't get any calls on Christmas Eve. But yeah, that's so exciting, that's awesome. So you moved here, you started on patrol, and I bet you it was. Just we talked about it a little bit, but I'm sure it was just a night and day difference. Well, first of all, weren't you actually moved to days when you were here, or did you start on nights?
Speaker 3:I did start on nights here. It was different as far as, like a lot of things. So, like a lot of things, we do more investigations of our own here in patrol and in Vegas we had, we had a DUI unit. So if I pulled somebody over which I didn't get to pull a whole lot of people over there because we were so busy with calls all the time it was nice to be able to do more traffic stops here, to do a little more of your own hunting, if you will, for something. And I was told you know, duis are an issue here, this is what you look out for to find them. And I started doing that. I was really nervous because I never fully did DUI investigations, but I rode with some of the DUI guys and I'm like, okay, yeah, I can, I can do this.
Speaker 3:So then I looked a lot for that at night and just different, different things, different kinds of people that are out at night and you know what's suspicious, just riding around in neighborhoods. A lot of people are very curious when you're riding around in their neighborhood and you just, you know wave, or some people leave their garage open. Just I thought it'd be irritating a lot of people by, you know, knocking on their door at 1 am and saying I'm sorry your garage is open, I just don't want someone to come break in and thank you so much, I didn't realize I left it open and close it and sometimes you couldn't get a hold of somebody and you leave a crime prevention alert little flyer on their door in their mailbox and I'm was amazed how many people were just thankful for that heads up that were and knowing that we are out there at night just driving through the neighborhoods making sure they're safe while they're sleeping yeah, yeah, I'm sure and the fact that we have time to do that here too is also crazy.
Speaker 2:Coming from somewhere else, the you know just the fact that patrol can work a lot of their own cases. You can call detectives out to. Detectives can work you for something major, absolutely. But if it's something minor, you have the option to work it and work even with the detectives, to have them kind of teach you the process on how to follow through in a case, which is great, because then you have patrol who's learning those fundamental skills so that if they want to go to a unit one day, they can Versus the bigger agencies that have a lot of detectives and a lot of crime. You're just taking the first initial report and you're out of there.
Speaker 3:You probably don't think about it after you never hear what happens about it again because you're just so busy and you're on to the next issue that the city has.
Speaker 3:But there was just so many calls that there were times where I would leave for my shift and I would come in 12 hours later from my next shift, and some of the calls that were holding when I left were still holding and when I came here we, you know, we work really hard to work a call and get to the next call and make sure that people are served. I mean, we work for them. So it was nice to see. The calls definitely do not hold as long here as a lot of major cities.
Speaker 1:I bet the property crimes detective Jenna is very thankful for the patrol officer. Jenna, who did go to all of those garages, and remind people to shut them and, to you know, put those little safety alerts out saying don't forget to do this, because that's probably what you're dealing with a lot right now, lots of those thefts and yeah, crimes of opportunity, people here from out of town.
Speaker 3:And then there's also, you know, kids that get into some trouble at night and they leave out their window and their parents don't know they're gone and they're just being. They think they're being silly and just having fun and taking stuff out of people's cars, but they don't understand that it's a felony to break into somebody's vehicle and steal what's inside. Yeah, they don't see it as that big of a deal, but it is it is.
Speaker 1:It's serious, for sure most definitely so.
Speaker 2:What are um property crimes wise, what are the most uh frequent cases that you guys deal with?
Speaker 3:probably the vehicle burglaries, construction theft, um, we are working a lot of breaker cases right now where the breakers are being taken from a lot of the new construction sites and so going out there and educating some of the general contractors of what they can do to protect themselves, because unfortunately we do try to be everywhere but we know that we can't be right definitely so absolutely, you know putting up cameras securing their buildings and having good security, who actually looks out for their buildings, and things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah and neighbors, like reminding people in neighborhoods you could see something happening and be the reason that it's prevented or put a stop to. You know, like, if you look out your window and you notice a car at a construction site that you don't usually see, give us, give us a call, or call the you know. Get to know the people who are at the construction site, maybe get their information so that if you do see something suspicious, you can call them and say, hey, there's a white truck. Usually you're in a black truck, is this okay?
Speaker 3:So many neighbors have helped us out like that. Good neighborhoods that communicate and contact and don't hesitate to call the police when something seems suspicious, are the neighborhoods that criminals know not to go into. There are way too many people. There are way too many cameras. I'm not going to hit this neighborhood and people have told us. I hesitated to call, I didn't want to bother you guys. Well, that's our job. So we come out and we investigate it, and maybe it is somebody who works for the site, that's no problem. We document that and then we move on. Because you don't want to wish that you had called and then find out that your neighbor's car got burglarized the next day. Just call, we'll get to it and if it's nothing, it's no big deal, right?
Speaker 1:What's the worst that could happen if it's nothing and I know you're also involved in the Honor Guard yes, that's pretty special. I don't think a lot of people at home who may be listening right now really understand what the Honor Guard is.
Speaker 3:They're events to honor people, when police officers and other people are mourning, and they're also there for celebratory um events, such as parades and things like that.
Speaker 1:It's like the ceremonial side of police work, kind of.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, yeah, good representation. Um, unfortunately, we do have to go to police officer funerals, but it's important that we have that camaraderie and show that we support other agencies. I always wanted to do it in Las Vegas and I'd been to some of the police officer funerals and I had gone to Christopher Taylor's funeral here and one of the guys said, hey, why aren't you in the honor guard? And I said I don't think I can be because I cry at funerals. He said, yeah, that's why we wear sunglasses. We all cry at funerals. And I said I didn't think of it like that. But yeah, he's like well, you should. You could always try it out. If you don't like it, then then you don't have to.
Speaker 2:But it's definitely an honor to represent the police department. It's one of those things where you truly have a passion for what you do and those around you and it's that reminder of like the brotherhood that law enforcement is a part of that. Even if somebody works in a different city, you still have the same job. You still face the same dangerous traffic stops and just even being on the side of the road is extremely dangerous, let alone going into a house. You don't know what kind of weapons are there. So it's all the same job, even if it's in different places, and so you know when. Even if you don't know somebody, you still grieve for them because they gave their life and they're no longer. You know they're not going to be there for their family, and it's just. I think it's great that our department has such an active honor guard and we're able to go to a lot of places because we can show our support and solidarity for such tragic loss.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I absolutely agree, and it's funerals are very sad. They are also humbling in the fact that it could be anybody. Nobody ever expects to be that person or that officer. You think that your tactics are perfect, but you can do everything right and someone could still shoot you.
Speaker 1:That's the grim reality for sure. All right, let's switch gears a little bit here. Is there something from your time in Vegas that really stands out to you as like a major memory from when you look back? Is there like a particular case that stands out to you as like a major memory from when you look back? Is there like a particular case that stands?
Speaker 3:out. The worst calls for any officer is when children are either hurt or killed. So I won't go into any of those details about that, but probably those and just looking out for other officers, because the officers who do have to deal with those kinds of things, every one of us is different. We're all going to take it a different way. When we have new officers that come here, just having that conversation with them, you know from the get-go like hey, not every day is going to be great.
Speaker 3:We, you, you can't go to 10 calls a day where somebody's not going to be mad at you. Unfortunately, that's part of the job. You will go to 10 calls a day where somebody is not going to be mad at you. Unfortunately, that's part of the job. You will go to those calls where people are very happy and you have to also remember that those calls are good. But reach out, talk to your peers, because somebody's been through something. Someone has another story. I think the biggest thing overall in any department is just looking out for other officers, training them to be safe. You know everybody. There's so many different officers here from other departments that we all have little insights that we're constantly learning from each other. I mean someone will say something today and I'll say I didn't think about. No one's ever taught me that I never thought about that and that we do reach out and say things, not get offended by what other people say, because we're all just trying to help each other out and to be a better agency.
Speaker 1:From here and Vegas. Obviously, you spent about five years there, and now you've been five years here. What's your favorite part about this department?
Speaker 3:we have a great community we have so many people who want to be here like I, we moved here and we plan on retiring here. How many people get to work in the same place that they actually want to be at when they retire? Um, we have a great community here, great officers, just everybody is. We get so many good tips when we put something out and it helps the community understands. They don't want any bad guys on the street either, and you know we're always going to have issues. We're always going to have traffic issues, but we do listen to them. We work hard to make stops and it is nice when something happens and we see it and we pull it over and you see the person on your peripheral go like, yes, they finally saw it. I've been telling them about this and you know we are out there, we just can't see everything, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Right, right, right, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I think something that's fun and unique about you that Mercedes told me my old department was very different.
Speaker 3:We did not do that either.
Speaker 2:We had like strict chain of command. Like I would never talk to a lieutenant in my old department unless they talked to me first. But we're very connected with everyone around and there's just kind of like open communication usually. I mean, obviously with respect, but I was shocked when Jenna stood up and she's like okay, I have to share my joke of the day now and it's like it was always something so quirky, but it's so funny and it's just it was always great to hear before you went out on your shift and saw God knows what. But you could always count on Jenna. If you didn't hear it on roll call, she'd send it out on the computer as a message of like guess what the joke of the day is? And like you have people who like hate it and roll their eyes because dry humor is not for everyone, it's for me. So, um, officer Newton, what's your joke of the day?
Speaker 3:Oh geez, what's my joke of the day, do you?
Speaker 1:still do these every day, now that you're a detective, I do yes.
Speaker 2:I'll. I'd be disappointed if you didn't.
Speaker 3:I throw one out in the cubicles, and sometimes I get silence. And sometimes I'll get like oh, that was a good one.
Speaker 1:Have you done it yet today? What was your joke of the day?
Speaker 3:The joke today. I try to associate it with what kind of day it is. So nationaltodaycom and I actually had a lieutenant in Vegas that would do this, and so I got it from him and I'm like I really like those jokes and so I decided to just start doing it here. Um, but one of my favorite ones that I did once to now, captain matlock, I, it was the first day of school, so I used that and I said did you, did you hear about the kidnapping today? And she's like no, I feel like she's a lieutenant. I feel like, as a lieutenant, I should have known that this happened today. I said, it's okay, the kid woke up and she just stared at me. She goes, get out of here, go to work.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, what day is it today.
Speaker 3:Today is National Croissant Day.
Speaker 1:National Croissant Day.
Speaker 3:So why did the croissant apply for the job? I don't know why it needed the dough.
Speaker 1:It was too flaky. It didn't show up to its last job, yeah.
Speaker 3:I know there are probably more eye rolls out there now.
Speaker 1:No, I love that, though, because everyone could use a little bit of positivity to start their day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely I would appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I would laugh.
Speaker 2:Good attitudes are the absolute best thing in law enforcement, because sometimes you see bad things, you end up with some negative Nancys. But having the people who bring positive energy to the table makes everybody's day so much better. So, Officer Newton, thank you so much for joining us and coming on. You've been a great guest.
Speaker 1:We appreciate you.
Speaker 2:We finally got some more women to be on the Cape Cop cast, so we're really excited about that too.
Speaker 3:Happy to contribute.
Speaker 1:You're the best. Thank you so much, absolutely, and thank you at home for listening or watching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Thank you and stay safe. We'll see you next time.
