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
The Roadmap from Recruit to Officer with FTO Sgt. Gerry Buonocore
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.
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Copcast. I'm one of your hosts Public Affairs.
Speaker 2:Officer Lisa Greenberg and I'm Officer Mercedes Simons. Together we make up the Public Affairs Office and today we have Sergeant Jerry Bonacore. He is our FTO coordinator now.
Speaker 1:Do you want to tell us?
Speaker 2:a little bit more about your history at the department before we get into what you're doing now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. Started with the department in 2012. Did my first seven years on the road, my first six on nights. I made the SWAT team in 2014,. So I've been on the SWAT team for 11 years now. My first five years was an entry member. The last six have been on the sniper unit and the last four as the assistant team leader for the sniper element. I moved to narcotics in 2019, did four years as an undercover narcotics detective and then got promoted to sergeant almost two years ago. Now Did my first year and a half as a patrol sergeant and just recently, in March, I got moved to the professional development unit and I'm the FTO coordinator sergeant.
Speaker 1:Nice. Do you like the change?
Speaker 3:I do, I do. It's been awesome. It's been very rewarding. It's a lot of fun to get to work with all the new people and it's fun being able to see them come in, grow and influence them early in their careers to try to get them started on the right foot.
Speaker 1:It's kind of interesting because your position prior to this everything you've done has been really in the action right.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of SWAT, there's patrol, there's narcotics.
Speaker 1:You're really getting into like the dirty stuff and then you move into training and you probably spent a lot of time in these four walls of the building and at the training center.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, it has been an adjustment, for sure. Yeah, like training center. Yes, yeah, it has been an adjustment, for sure. Yeah, like you said, the majority of my career has really been what you would consider traditional police work and really getting into things, so it's been a bit of an adjustment, taking more of a administrative role, but it's been a lot of fun. It's been a good adjustment and I have my first kid coming on the way, so the timing couldn't couldn't have been better. With the schedule change and having a little bit more normal hours with the little one coming, that's awesome. Are you having a girl?
Speaker 1:or a boy.
Speaker 3:A boy.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so exciting. Yeah, we're very excited.
Speaker 2:yes, Another baby boy Can confirm boys are awesome.
Speaker 3:I'm very much looking forward to it. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:But that makes you like the perfect person for the job with all the life experience you 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 right when they get on the road is review body cam footage and stuff like that. So you're probably the best person for the job to sit there and point out tactics of. I'd probably do that a little bit different next time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have been very fortunate in my career to have a lot of experience doing a lot of different things, and it has given me what I would consider a wealth of knowledge in different areas of expertise. I've also had the privilege of working with some fantastic supervisors myself people who really set me on the right path and showed me the right way to do things. So it's just good to be able to pass that knowledge along, really help these new guys, like I said, get off on the right foot and make sure they're squared away, ready for the challenges of the career that's ahead of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you kind of touched on it, but for people who don't know what exactly is your current job and what do you do, so as the FTO coordinator, basically the new hires get assigned to me the day they're hired and then they are directly assigned to me through their academy at the Southwest Florida Public Service Academy, through their pre-deployment phase here at the department and then through their field training phase.
Speaker 3:So I have them from day one. They walk in the door till the last day of FTO and get out ready to go on their own. So it's a lot of like we talked about reviewing the work that they're doing. Their training officers complete a daily observation report every single day that they have their trainee with them. So every day I go in I read those DORs, I check on what kind of calls they've been to, how they're handling certain types of calls, how they're doing and everything from their radio traffic to their driving to their officer safety. I review all that every day and then we'll have like biweekly sit downs with myself, the train, the trainee and the training officer just to touch on anything specific that the training officer wants to talk about or any areas that they could be improving in the areas that they're doing really well in, just to get a better idea, a firsthand experience of how they're doing out there on the road.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. And for people again who maybe don't have a lot of knowledge of this area the Southwest Florida Public Service Academy that's like the schooling side of it. Then they come here and they have their department training, which kind of gets them introduced to how our department specifically functions, our specific things that we have to follow, and also gets them a little bit of experience prior to actually getting onto the road. Then they're in the car with their field training officer really getting the hands-on experience before then being out on the road on their own. How long is that entire process?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a long process and it can get grueling at times. So they start with the academy. That's usually about a six-month period, depending on like holidays and schedules that the schools are in session, but that's about a six month period that they're in the academy. Once they graduate the academy they go and take their state certification test. Once they pass their state certification test they come to us when they get here.
Speaker 3:Like you said, they take that basic knowledge that they learned at the academy and we just expand upon that, build on that and really get them in tune with how Cape Coral Police Department does things, our with how Cape Coral Police Department does things, our department policies, our department procedures. So that's a nine-week course that they go to once they graduate the academy and come to us. We cover everything from reality-based training scenarios to the administrative side of things, how to work the computer programs that we work with out on the road. And we just recently added a few extracurriculars to our pre-deployment, which is why we expanded it out to nine weeks. We're actually proud to say that we're sending our new officers out from pre-deployment already with their patrol rifle certification, their speed measurement certification and CIT certified.
Speaker 2:That's actually so smart. I didn't know that because when I went through it was not that way. And that makes so much sense, because taking people off of patrol to go to these trainings and that you might not get them because they're either full or it just didn't work out with everybody else's schedule Because it's not we don't have a thousand officers to switch around. Yeah, and that was actually.
Speaker 3:Sergeant Bean recognized that deficiency. Just like you said, we're sending new guys out on the road and then immediately having them put in for classes that take them off the road as they're just getting into their schedule and getting into a routine with things and putting them in class. We added that to our pre-deployment, so they hit the road running at this point.
Speaker 3:So, once they finished pre-deployment with us they go out into the official term, for it is our officer training evaluation program, otep for short. 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 secondary officer, they're training officers, the primary officer and they're learning how things work out in the real world. Phase two they do another 20 days with a second FTO. That's where they're becoming more of the lead role. They take more of the primary officer role and then, after the 20 days in phase two, they move to phase In.
Speaker 3:Phase three they are, although we have a training officer riding with them in the car, they're there for observation only. The officer trainee is in charge of the calls that they go to dispatching themselves to, whatever it may be, and they handle everything from start to finish on the calls. The FTO is just there to observe, rate how they're doing on those last seven days. Once they finish those seven days they're ready to head on their own. We do have a phase four FTO where we just follow up them over the next few months. Just make sure that everything's going well with them If we need to get out there with them on a few calls. We do just a follow-up phase to make sure everything is being retained properly and that they're doing well and set up for success.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great, it's awesome. It's really necessary to make sure that officers are safe to go out on their own, because we don't have the ability to go back after we make decisions that could potentially harm you or somebody else. So, that's why there's so much training is making sure that everyone is truly squared away, at least as best as they can be Right, you're always going to go to different calls and things that you haven't experienced before you might not know what to do, but just having the basic safety down is so important.
Speaker 2:You can look up whatever state statute you need later, but being able to go make those split-second decisions and have the training to back you up is really what's crucial, which is why we have so much added.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, those split-second decisions like you said. That's really what we want to get them ready for in those pre-deployment and then the OTEP phases. And, like you said, cape Coral Police Department does a phenomenal job of putting those programs in place and setting those guys up for success as they come out on their own.
Speaker 1:And I think it's important that people who either have interest in being a police officer or even just people at home who are curious how the department works, know how much training goes into this, this isn't a thing where we get someone off the street and in three weeks they're on the road.
Speaker 1:This is an extensive process. There's a lot that goes into it and there are times where people will graduate from the Public Service Academy. 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:Yeah, yeah, and it's like you said. It's a grueling process and we do have high standards here at the Cape Coral Police Department. We want the best of the best. Our community expects that of us, and we want to make sure that we're putting the right people out there to get the job done safely and professionally and that extended training does afford us the opportunity to make sure that maybe somebody is really good in a classroom. But once they get out there and you have to make decisions in an ever-evolving world, sometimes not everybody's cut out for it, and so there are times when we do have to dismiss people from the OTEP program. We always want everybody to succeed and we try to do everything we can to get everyone to succeed, but in the end we got to make sure that we're putting quality officers out there and upholding the standards of the department.
Speaker 1:For sure. And I think it's one thing, like you mentioned, for someone to be in a classroom setting and say all the right things and when you know the tensions aren't heightened, and all of that in a controlled setting to know what to do. But it's when you're in the moment and there's tensions are high and things are getting crazy, knowing and falling back on the instinct and that that instinct is the right thing.
Speaker 3:And we let our officers know, even when they finish the OTEP program. You're still going to be learning. Like it's common phrase to say, you don't really know how to be a cop until you've done your first three years, because there are so many variants of circumstances and situations and everybody's going to react differently every time you go on a call, even if it's the same call type. So having the training is great, but there's nothing like that real world experience and getting out there and seeing how different people react to different circumstances.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and it's so different. When I went through the academy and then we graduated, me and my buddy looked at each other. They're like they're giving us guns now. Because in the academy we had these blue training guns, and then, all of a sudden, it's graduation day and they give you your real gun and we're like they trust us with these.
Speaker 3:It could be a real reality check. Yeah yeah, they hand you a badge and a gun and it's an immense responsibility.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, there's a big difference between the book smarts and the street smarts. You can learn anything you want in the academy. You can be at the very top of your class and you still might not be the best cop, and that's something that, luckily, I think a lot of people recognize for themselves. I don't know that there's a lot of people that we necessarily have to be like. You're out, hopefully at least.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like you said, there's a lot of self-reflection takes place when you're in that OTEP program and you're getting out there and you're experiencing A lot of our guys come to us straight out of college and they don't really have any real life experience yet and they get out there and they start experiencing things that they've never had the opportunity to be placed in those kinds of situations before in their life. So a lot of self-reflection takes place on that and during that FTO OTP phase and some people decide that it's just not for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a huge learning curve, Like sometimes the lights don't really turn on for a lot of people until two, three years. That's to feel truly comfortable. Know that you're going to a call 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 have any business going to this domestic with these 45-year-old married couple? They haven't been married but yet they have to give them marriage advice and hope that people listen to them. It's finessing all of your communication skills that you might not have yet. There's a lot that goes into it to really make a successful police officer. That goes past what you do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I think you said it there with the communication skills, and that's something that we try to build upon in the pre-deployment and in the OTEP phase is, we can teach you policy and procedure all day long, but if you 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 we try to put them in uncomfortable situations during that training to build those communication skills and give our officers the verbal equipment. Would you say, that they can use that on the road to solve a lot of issues instead of having to use their tools?
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, that is. Maybe you guys know that I came from Maryland where they had all these use of force retraining, but one of the actually most efficient things that they said is, your first line of defense is actually your verbal communication. That's the first tool in your tool belt that you should at least try to use. I mean situation dependent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, you're 100% correct. If we can handle a situation just using our communication skills, that's always going to be the best outcome, and so, like I said, we try to instill that upon our guys and make sure that they understand. That's an important step in the process. It should be the first step, and it's a very important one.
Speaker 2:Have there been a lot of recent issues with anything?
Speaker 3:We're very fortunate here in Cape Coral to have an extremely supportive community. So, yeah, we don't deal with a lot of the unrest that some of the other areas of the country experience, and we're very fortunate in that. So, no, we haven't seen a lot of issues. Of course, there's always going to be mistakes, things happen. Things happen super rapidly out there, a lot faster than someone who's sitting at a desk watching the video can really process how those situations go from bad to worse really quickly out there on the road.
Speaker 3:We're all human right and mistakes are made. But again, I think we do a phenomenal job here of giving them the tools to get out there on their own and the experience and understanding of how to handle those situations. And beyond that, when those mistakes do happen, we have a phenomenal training unit who's able to bring those people in, have the proper conversations, the proper remedial training or whatever it may be, to make sure that those issues aren't a continuing thing. We take care of them immediately, we recognize them quickly and we take the actions that we need to correct any potential mistakes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. That's so important. I think that you're out there doing a phenomenal job. I know it hasn't been too long, but having somebody who has the ability to just communicate things but also be transparent with everything and to be straightforward. Hey look, this needs to be fixed. I think having both of those like mentorship, but also kind of like a firm hand in what's going on is really great, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like you said again, communication is key and I think it's super important that when we're talking to the guys and covering issues that we are straightforward with, them.
Speaker 3:Hey, this is what you did wrong, but this is how we're going to fix it. And we try to have those conversations be productive. We don't want to have just meaningless conversation, just to have the conversation. We want to make sure that they're productive and that we're correcting those issues and that not only are we correcting the issues, but the officer also understands why. They get the why of why we're going over it or what the issue was. We want them to understand it because when you understand something, you're much less likely to make that mistake again, as opposed to just hey, you did this wrong, do this next time. Well, if you don't understand why you have to do it that way next time, you're more apt to make that mistake again.
Speaker 1:So that makes sense. I do have a question. I do have a question. Is there anything you miss about kind of being in the action?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah it is. It's always fun getting out there. That's the great thing about being a cop is every day is different, right? You know you never know what you're going to get into. You never know when that tone is going to go off and things are going to hit the fan and it's going to be time to use all those skills that you've been taught. So you do miss that. Sometimes. You miss the adrenaline dumps and the camaraderie that comes with being in those situations. You deal with certain things as a police officer that 99% of the population will never have to deal with and you do form bonds going through those things. I'm not going to equate it to the military, because obviously they go through a whole different set of circumstances, but that brotherhood, that family, that community that you build, going through those experiences that not everybody goes through, is a special thing. So you do miss getting into things like that and having those experiences with your buddies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at least you still have SWAT.
Speaker 3:It's not like you're just sitting behind a desk all the time.
Speaker 2:You get to go out and have fun and train.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's something that I love doing?
Speaker 3:Sitting behind a desk, all the time you get to go out and have fun. Yes, yeah, and that's something that I love doing. I've been on the team, like I said, for 11 years now and I love every second of it. Yeah, I have no intention of coming off the team anytime soon. It's one of my favorite aspects of the department. It's just another level of that brotherhood. When you go through that physical training and those kind of scenarios with the SWAT team, you really build a bond and we have a great team with great leadership and it's a real joy, honestly.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like you got the best of both worlds.
Speaker 3:I do, I do. I would say that, yes, yeah, I've been very lucky in my career.
Speaker 1:It's kind of a reality check. I bet too to be like wait, now I'm in charge of all these people you know. It kind of is like oh so.
Speaker 3:I'm in charge of them now. Yeah yeah, when I first got promoted 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 like oh man.
Speaker 3:When something goes wrong, I'm the guy that's going to come in and make sure that it gets fixed and everything is going right. It is a weight of responsibility but luckily, like I said, I've had a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things with the department and gain that valuable experience. And even when you become a sergeant, we have a sergeant training evaluation program. So it's almost like an FTO for the sergeants and they go step by step with you on what you're going to encounter as a sergeant and how to handle certain situations. A big part of it as a sergeant is the administrative side. A lot of people don't realize that it's not just you're out there. You're worried about your people, making sure that they're okay and they're safe and everything they're doing is what they're supposed to be doing. But the administrative side of it is a whole nother beast.
Speaker 2:There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that things are running efficiently, and that's the big reality check as a sergeant is getting in the weeds with all that paperwork and realizing oh man, I think that's probably like one of the biggest wake up calls to a lot of cops is it's oh, it's not just out there in the action doing this, and that all the time it is so much administrative paperwork.
Speaker 2:Yes, a call. You don't just go to the call and fix everything. You usually have to do a report after.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah yeah. But to do a report after? Absolutely yeah yeah. But a lot of paperwork goes into police work that people don't realize.
Speaker 2:But it's important. So very well, we appreciate you. Is there anything else that you were thinking of that you wanted to add in?
Speaker 3:Not really. I appreciate you guys having me on. It's fun. I enjoyed it, so you know good.
Speaker 1:See you quick and pain.
