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
Inside a Crash Investigation with Traffic Homicide Investigators Schwigk & Leonard
What happens after a serious, or even deadly crash? How do investigators determine who's at fault, what caused the tragedy, and whether criminal charges should be filed? In this episode of the Cape CopCast, Cape Coral Police Department Traffic Homicide Investigators George Schwigk and Stephen Leonard pull back the curtain on their specialized world where mathematics, physics, and detective work combine to solve complex crash puzzles.
These officers explain the tedious and sometimes heartbreaking process of reconstructing crashes. They reveal how speed rarely acts alone in causing fatal crashes - it's typically combined with other factors like impairment, or inattentiveness. The investigators share why solving hit-and-run cases is even more rewarding, as they track down drivers who attempt to escape accountability only to face much more severe consequences than if they had remained at the scene.
The conversation shifts to cutting-edge technology transforming police work, particularly the department's UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) program. These aerial tools provide critical bird's-eye perspectives of crash scenes, help locate missing persons, and enhance security at public events.
THI Schwigk & THI Leonard also discuss Cape Coral's unique traffic challenges: the blend of year-round residents, seasonal visitors, and the proliferation of electric bikes and scooters creating new safety concerns. They provide essential advice about which vehicles are street legal and warn that standard bicycle helmets aren't designed for the speeds many electric bikes can achieve. Their message resonates clearly: through a combination of enforcement, education, and individual responsibility, we can all contribute to the ultimate goal of zero traffic fatalities in our community.
Hello and welcome back to the Cape Copcast. I'm Officer Mercedes Simons with the Public Affairs Office, and today we have two special guests and I'll let you guys introduce yourselves.
Speaker 2:I'm George Schwick. I'm a traffic homicide investigator with the Cape Coral Police Department, as everyone does. I started off in patrol Most of it was on nights and then I kind of took an interest in traffic crashes and took a bunch of classes and kind of got selected for the Traffic Homicide Unit.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So how many years do you have on total with the?
Speaker 2:police department. I started in 2018, so I'm supposed to be good at math here. Seven, yeah, about seven.
Speaker 3:My name is Steven Leonard. I am also in the Traffic Homicide Unit. I have been with CAPE now sworn almost nine years. I've been in THI, which is the short for Traffic Homicide Investigations three and a half years now. Before that I was on patrol on nights my whole career. I enjoyed math. It wasn't my best subject but I enjoyed it enough to take on this challenge.
Speaker 1:It's similar to engineering and definitely a challenge, but I enjoy it so, speaking of math, what all goes into one of your thi investigations?
Speaker 2:we get called out if there's a fatality or injuries that are likely could result in a fatality. Every crash, crash, every case is different. Not all of them actually require math, but sometimes you can use math to figure out some unknowns that you don't know.
Speaker 3:It doesn't always work out, depending on the dynamics of the crash, depending on the speed. It depends on a lot. But when you can do it it is satisfying, when it all works together and kind of completes the case.
Speaker 1:So would you say that speed is the most frequent answer for why a crash resulted in a fatality?
Speaker 3:I think they kind of go hand in hand. Sometimes with multiple. It could be speed, it could be lack of seat belts, not wearing restraint device, it could be inattentiveness or impairment. It all is very dependent on the crash, but speed can play a factor. For sure.
Speaker 2:Speed impairment and safety, like restraints, stuff like that would probably lead to fatal injuries. Stuff like that more than lead to fatal injuries. Stuff like that more than anything else. Unless it's a medic, sometimes there's a medical issue that happened which causes the crash, but that's kind of different.
Speaker 1:Out of the cases resulting in an arrest, what are some of the most interesting cases that you've had that you're the most proud of, that you've worked in?
Speaker 3:cases that you've had that you're the most proud of, that you've worked. Hit and runs are definitely satisfying to me because obviously if somebody's leaving the scene, they're most likely hiding something, whether they're impaired at the time of the crash or they have some issue with a driver's license or criminal history that they're concerned about. Whatever the case may be, when you can locate them and get justice for the other involved parties especially when we get called out there's injuries involved and it's typically a serious injury where their life's been forever changed because of the injury. So when you can find the person and provide justice to them, it's definitely rewarding.
Speaker 2:A lot of times we figure out who it is which I don't know, that we have any that are outstanding where it's a hit and run with an unknown of anything and we aren't able to figure out who it is, and a lot of times, people that are that leave the scene. Maybe they're not even at fault for the crash, but the fact that they leave the scene. Maybe they're not even at fault for the crash, but the fact that they leave the scene and it caused a fatality and they did not stop to report it or something like that. Now it's a big felony. That's 10 plus years in prison if you get convicted, whereas maybe you're not even at fault for the crash or maybe you just get a ticket for the crash, depending on on the circumstances even if you are at fault and it's just a generic fatality, there's no criminal aspect to it.
Speaker 3:I don't say generic fatality out of like lightly, but there's no other aggravating circumstances.
Speaker 1:It's could be a year suspension on your driver's license and a thousand dollar fine, exactly so like for the people that don't have a driver's license or their driver's license, than a thousand dollar fine. Exactly so, like for the people that don't have a driver's license or their driver's license is suspended if they don't stop and stay at the crash. Your consequences are going to be exponential, comparatively.
Speaker 1:And you guys have a pretty good solve rate. So far as what you do in the cases that you go through to really try to figure out who did it, what happened and what all the factors were, and all that kind of ends up being very interesting just how all that plays out with your investigation and math and having witnesses and video cameras, and there are just so many pieces that go into that puzzle for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, witnesses that stick around after crashes help us tremendously because obviously we're responding after the fact, so we have to rely on video witness testimony evidence we gather on scene to build a case. But when citizens take a few minutes out of their time to stick around and sometimes it turns into a little more than a few minutes by the time we get there but when they do, it helps us out tremendously because it goes into identifying parties involved in the cases that much faster and sometimes they're key witnesses for putting somebody behind the wheel or seeing a vehicle description, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2:They're there before officers are there so they can fill in the blanks. I can think of certain crashes where we're looking at the scene, at the scene evidence, and we're like wait, this shouldn't be here, like why is this? I'm thinking of a specific one motorcycle, one that you had, and it's like why is this motorcycle here? Did someone move this? But all the officers? No, no one moved it. We find a witness later and they're like oh yeah, we moved the bike over here.
Speaker 2:Like oh well, we knew it was moved, but the witnesses that are there help fill in those blanks of why stuff is the way it is. Witnesses are key. That's what's helpful On any crash. If witnesses stick around, I like to thank them and be like, hey, thank you for sticking around, Because a lot of people they just see the crash, they're like, oh man, that's real bad, and then they just keep on driving and it's like maybe you're the one that saw the key piece of evidence or saw something that is crucial to the investigation that could help us out. I mean, sometimes we can track down witnesses after the fact which we have done.
Speaker 2:It's not illegal.
Speaker 3:It just sucks yeah they're not doing anything wrong. It just definitely helps us. We love our firefighters, but if they tell you to leave before we get there, please stick around. And that's for every accident, beyond injury, hopefully, but especially when there's Honestly any incident, if you happen to see it, you're being there and providing that information helps tremendously in any investigation.
Speaker 2:And with crashes. Sometimes they'll tell they'll try to get people to. Maybe if their car stopped in the middle of the road, maybe that's causing another issue. So maybe they're trying to make you move or leave because of where you're at. But if you can stick around the area, maybe pull into a nearby parking lot, pull over to a safe area so that you're not in the way. Sometimes that's another thing. With, like with firefighters, they don't want too many people in their way while they're trying to help save someone's life. So they'll probably yell at people to get out of here. We don't need you in the way, but they're they're trying to do their job.
Speaker 1:So definitely, just like you guys.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So we have THIs and then we have our drone program, which you guys are both pretty well integrated into the drone program. You're a drone instructor.
Speaker 3:He is.
Speaker 1:I know this kind of came into play what like a year and a half ago now.
Speaker 2:But you guys as the traffic homicide investigators. It was kind of the place that made sense for you guys to have and train with the UAVs. The reason I guess what we use them for is even before we had drones, we used 3D scanners, like 3D scan technology, to document our scenes with, which is really good technology to use, but with the drones, what they could do for us is it can provide an aerial, like a top-down view of a scene it's using photos to create a 3D image of a scene, so you can 3D scan with them as well.
Speaker 3:But you get a different perspective of fills and the voids from what we scan from the ground. Because an aerial perspective in crash investigation is amazing because you can see things that you can't see and you're just standing over top of it. You get an aerial bird's-eye view and it really helps paint the picture of where vehicles move throughout the crash.
Speaker 2:And that can be included in the case as part of the evidence that if it goes to court or something like that, the jury can see like a nice top-down view of what the scene was like. And as they come out with newer technology, we need to make sure we're keeping up with that and the newer technology has better capabilities.
Speaker 1:How does it change from like a THI investigation using drones to patrols investigations?
Speaker 3:So patrol uses more basically what we previously call out a suspect for active investigations, active felony investigations or locating people missing people, which happens every day, seems like. So you get that bird's eye view. You can use thermal imaging which the new ones will have even world's better thermal imaging capabilities but it gives you the ability to respond immediately and send up a UAV to try and locate somebody as soon as possible, without having to call out a helicopter. It's a fraction of the cost to operate, charging batteries and swap an amount if you need to, versus having to fly back to refuel.
Speaker 2:And we're not replacing what they do. What the aviation unit does does it's just sometimes, if it's, like you said, weather I don't know if you mentioned that, but weather, yeah, maybe it's raining somewhere else in the county and that would prevent them from coming, but over here in north cape coral or something, it's not. The weather's fine. We can launch from like right nearby, versus having to fly to where the scene is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's also a huge asset in missing persons cases because we have so much water here, especially if, driving around town, you'll think, oh, I can just get from this street to this street, but really there's a canal in the middle and you have to go all the way around. But the drones have the ability to go over water all the way around. But the drones have the ability to go over water, so you can see very quickly in a small area, things that you probably wouldn't be able to get to as fast from a vehicle, let alone having the aerial view. Absolutely so when we put up a drone at an event like Red White and Boom what exactly are you looking for?
Speaker 2:It's really just security. I mean just to be up in the event something happens and be ready to go. It's just a better vantage point than officers on the ground.
Speaker 3:It just gives us a better ability to provide that much more safety and security to the event itself and the public that are there attending.
Speaker 3:Like I said, you can scan back and forth for things that seem out of place, or if something gets called in over the radio, you can hone in on that area and there might not be responding officers there yet, so you can kind of get an eye of what's going on to let the other officers know or, if the officer is involved in something, give out a description of what's going on.
Speaker 1:There's always people that get lost or get separated from the right medical calls yeah well, I know we had one little girl that went missing and I think they said she was wearing a pink shirt with blue jean shorts. So when an officer is just looking in a crowd, you can only see directly who's in front of you versus you. Guys can go up above and then look down and tell an exact location, potentially of where someone would be, which luckily they were found very quickly. We didn't have to go to evasive maneuvers to try to find them, but we could. I think that's one of those situations where especially having you guys.
Speaker 1:There is absolutely essential. How many call outs do you guys usually have? I know you track those stats per year. How many outs do you guys usually have? I know you track those stats per year. How many times do you guys get utilized?
Speaker 2:There has been an increase over the last few years, unfortunately, but I would say in the fifties, the last few years and hovering around the 20 fatalities a year.
Speaker 3:Some years are more than others, but we do seem to be generally increasing over the last few years. I just have an interesting blend of drivers down here. You have people that live here full time and then you have people that are retired and some folks aren't in a hurry to go anywhere and then other folks are in a hurry to get to work, to live their daily lives, whatever the case may be, and they don't always blend well together.
Speaker 2:We also have an increase in bicycles, electric bicycles, electric scooters. We don't always have just vehicle versus vehicle. With more, greater population, we have more pedestrian traffic that maybe there wasn't in the years past.
Speaker 3:Especially the electric bikes and vehicles have gotten much faster over the years and more common. You can get somewhere a lot quicker and don't have to pedal your own bike, or you can push a button and get yourself where you need to go. But not all of them are street legal or the right class of bicycle. Versus electric motorcycle per se, they go over 28 miles an hour. Basically, it's not an electric bike bicycle and they are technically not allowed to be on the road or on the sidewalk, or on the sidewalk.
Speaker 3:So yeah right, they're not street legal. It's no different than riding an atv or side by side. That's not street legal. Down the road, same thing on those electric dirt bike vehicles that can go over 28 miles an hour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's. One really important thing for people is if you buy one of the electric vehicles or golf carts or whatever, just know your law, because I think what, like 95% of Cape Coral, you can't have a golf cart unless it's registered. We don't have golf cart zones in neighborhoods. That's not a thing. If you're 16 years old and you're driving mom and dad's golf cart down the street and it's not a registered motor vehicle, you don't have a license. That's technically a criminal offense and I don't think people realize that when they let their kids drive around, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely do your research. Think people realize that when they let their kids drive around, correct? Yeah, definitely do your research. And even some of the electric bikes that go up to 28 miles an hour, the standard bike helmet is not designed to get into a crash god forbid at 28 miles an hour. So if you're going to be riding some of the class 2 or class 3 bicycles, I would definitely recommend getting a more secure dot helmet.
Speaker 3:They're much safer, because we've seen crashes with bicycles where people had bicycle helmets on, but they were going 20 miles an hour and the bike helmet's not going to do what it's designed to do when you're going that fast.
Speaker 1:No, have you seen an increase in crashes for the e-bikes and things like that?
Speaker 2:just because there's not there, they exist now. Yeah, mostly it's.
Speaker 3:I think just most of our bicycle crashes now are turning out to be electrified bicycles, I think, just because they're more and more common, they're more affordable, they're becoming more and more mainstream, so they are becoming more prevalent. But they do increase the speed that you can go on it, which is great, but you just have to do it safely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think people probably don't see them coming either, especially if they choose to ride on the sidewalk. They travel so fast. The average human person over the age of what like 25 is not used to seeing electric bicycles. They're used to seeing the speed of an average bicycle, which is what, like I don't know.
Speaker 3:12 8 to 12, yeah, 8 to 12, and now it's 28 more or less take an extra look when you're coming up to intersections to make sure there's no motorcycles or bicycles coming from either direction, because I know we have a lot of medians that you can drive straight across when you make that turn. Make sure obviously there's no bikes. Because they are smaller objects you don't see them as easily, but unfortunately we have a lot of vehicles that pull out in front of them and they say they never saw them and obviously that's why the crash occurred. But just take an extra second or two to look for those smaller objects and then save somebody's life definitely.
Speaker 1:The goal is always to have zero fatalities. That's the goal. That's why we send out so many officers onto the street to to run traffic operations and things like that. You just had one the other day and you guys had hundreds a few hundred stops and, yeah, 150, I think, something like somewhere around there yeah, with hundreds and hundreds of citations and that's just.
Speaker 1:You could sit there and write them all day, which obviously you guys did. But sometimes it feels like it doesn't make a dent just because we only have so many officers with so much time to sit there and write tickets. But that's where everybody has to do their part and make sure that you drive safe and you drive safe and you know, look for the pedestrians and the bicycles so that there are less accidents. If everyone drove cautiously, there would be no accidents. But it's also your job to be a defensive driver and try to prevent those as well.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Everybody has an obligation to basically drive your vehicle in a way to avoid causing damage or injury to anybody else, whether it's your fault or not. Some road rage can occur, but try to just let it not bother you and move on with your day, so that way nothing else advances and turns into more of an issue down the road, with aggressive driving or whatever the case may be. If somebody's driving that bad, call it in and let us take care of it.
Speaker 1:Exactly. We're better trained to handle situations like that than the average person. It's not for you to handle. It's not for you to say, hey, you didn't stop at that stop sign, let the police handle it. Call, you can always report that we have. Hey, we need increased patrols in my neighborhood in the morning because people are speeding or not stopping at the stop sign.
Speaker 1:I'm sure we could talk all day. Well, we are so thankful for everything that you guys do. There are a lot of really crucial investigations, especially those involving fatalities, that have to be handled with extreme sensitivity and professionalism, and I think you guys get nothing but accolades. You do a great job. And obviously it's important for people to remember that those investigations are a lot more involved. Professionalism, and I think you guys get nothing but accolades. You do a great job. And obviously it's important for people to remember that those investigations are a lot more involved. They take a little bit more time, but at the end of the day, I think it really shows that you guys have the results on the table, that either an arrest occurs, you guys are able to determine exactly what happened, to make sure that you know, know Cape Coral is taken care of, safe, the investigations are done well and we're just very thankful overall for what you guys do and the amount of work that you put into those.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you All right. Thank you, guys for joining us and for everybody else in Cape Coral, stay safe.
