Chief's Chat #25: Next-Level Policing Starts with You (Join the Team!)

Think of a police department that treats excellence like a system, not a slogan—where performance, pay, wellness, and readiness all move together. We’re nearly fully staffed, crime is down double digits, and our response times are trending in the right direction. Now we’re aiming higher, inviting top talent to bring their experience without losing their hard-won momentum.

We break down our new Collective Bargaining Agreement and why it changes the recruiting game. Lateral officers can receive up to five years of step credit and start around $95,000, with the option to buy back up to five years of time at zero percent interest. The goal isn’t to poach for numbers; it’s to raise the bar with people who want to build a career where wellness is baked into the culture, not stapled on. If you’re new to the profession, we explain how our training, tools, and leadership support set you up to succeed. If you’re experienced, we show you how your years translate on day one—financially and professionally.

We also spotlight a project that’s been quietly moving from idea to reality: high-water vehicles designed for multi-use operations and storm response. We walk through how our team scoped, vetted, funded, and delivered the capability—so we’re ready when blue skies turn gray. It’s a glimpse into how we turn data, need, and insight into real capacity the community can feel.

If you’ve ever wondered what “be brave, be best, be Cape” looks like in practice, this conversation lays it out—clear incentives, a wellness-first approach, modern tools, and a standard of service that respects both the badge and the person wearing it.

Ready to explore a move or start your career? Apply before November 14th and grab the $10,000 hiring bonus!

TO APPLY: www.capecops.com/careers

Transcript

Team Reunites And Sets Agenda

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Copcast Chiefs Chat edition. I'm one of your hosts, Lisa Greenberg.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

And I'm Officer Mercedes Simons. Together we make up your public affairs office. Once again, we have Chief Sizemore with us. Good morning.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Good morning.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Good. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Good. Good. It's been a while since with three of us have all been together for a podcast. So I'm looking forward to it today.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

The team is back.

Near-Full Staffing And Market Position

SPEAKER_02 0:25

The team is back. I know we want to talk heavily about recruitment because we've got some new stuff coming up and we are changing things up a little bit. There's some new financial incentives as well.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Yeah, financial incentives. And now, like we'll talk about it a little bit more, but we're getting to the point where we're pretty close to staffed. So now we're looking for the top talent, and we have a couple things that were put into our last contract that's really allowing us to do that.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

100%. Two big things. We are almost full. Now, when you look at statistics for you know what percentage of vacancy rate do you have, we are virtually full. We are under 5% vacancy rate, which means you are almost full. And when you have an organization that's almost 500 people to be 4% vacancy rate, you were almost full. The fullest that we've ever been in my career outside of the 2008 economic shutdown, because we got full because we cut a bunch of positions we hadn't hired yet. So it was an artificial fullness. But then we got the machine back running again and growing, and here we are so many years later. We were really stepping on the gas to get people in the door. And our team and our professional standards bureau, which is like the HR department for us, really rock and rolled and got us almost full. And then that's in conjunction with what you guys were talking about, which is our new CBA or collective bargaining agreement for our rank and file. And we got a really nice feature that we've never had in there before. I think that's where you guys are going.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yes, yes. It's exciting.

New CBA: Lateral Steps And Pay

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Definitely. So part of the initiative is having uh laterals able to join us. They've always been able to join us. That's nothing new, but with the added addition of they can have up to five years in within our STEP program. So I think it's they can start with up to$95,000, which is a lot, um, especially compared to some of the not just surrounding agencies, but nationally, that's a that's a lot of a up to starting rate. And you can buy up to five years of your time back in addition to that. And and and and they have there, I mean, it's it's an awesome contract. There's a lot of great things, but you can also buy back up to five years of time with a zero percent interest rate.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

It's a lot of inside baseball.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Yeah, right. I was gonna say for people like me. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

What does that mean for for Lisa and and everybody else out there? The the deal that we have has a lot of ands.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

But wait, there's more.

Why Top Talent Matters

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Not a lot of or or but. Which is great. The more ands you have, the better the deal. So what does that mean? It means we say that we want to be the best police department in the state of Florida, the best in everything, the best in in equipment, the best in performance, the best in research, the best at anything you do. And it's not a competition against anybody else. It's not like us versus Tampa or us versus Virginia Beach. It's us versus us. We want to be the best version of us, right? I want all those other places to win. I want them to be the best version of themselves. So when we talk about being the best, it's not stepping on somebody else to get there. It's being our best. Well, if you want to be the best, then part of that is the performance is there. We talked about it on an earlier podcast, 28% reduction in crime, all of the scientifically data-driven initiatives that we've done with redistricting, trying to improve our response time, which we'll talk about that maybe on another one. But we have made significant, impactful, positive strides on our response time. So all of those are marching towards the best. And our staff is great attitudes, want to be here. I mean, everything is there except that last piece was our old three-year labor contract or CBA. We were not quite the best. And this puts us there. It matches the attitude spirit, direction of the agency. We are, I would say, probably, if not the best, right up there with the best compensation, not just in the region, but in the state, like you said, and and nationally, we're a draw. We're an attraction. We're the eighth biggest city and the third biggest state in the country, and our pay is requisite for that. We are competitive in the market. So what does that mean? Be brave, be best, be cape. You want to be a cop, be brave. Make the decision. You made the decision to be a cop, well, be best. Go to the best. That's what we're trying to do. Well, if you're gonna be brave and do it, you want to be the best and go, then there's only one choice it's be cape. Be brave, be best, be cape. I was looking to see if it was on here, but we have it everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Literally everywhere else.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

If you have never been a police officer before and you want to enter the profession, we have a compensation package that really will make that a good decision financially for you. If you are local, regional, statewide, or even national, and you want to transfer, you want to come to Florida, or you're in Florida and you want to come be brave, be best, be cape, but man, it's really tough. I've been a cop at X department for four years. It's hard. I can't go start over at the bottom. This new contract, if you got four years at Department X, you come over to us, you start at a four-year officer with us. So it eases that transition. It's a win-win. Win for the employee because they're coming in and not losing all that gr ground that they have gained in their career financially. It's a big win for us because we get somebody who is a four-year experienced professional police officer who's not leaving because they're in trouble or running from something. They're incentivized to want to come here. And all of these rising tide lifts all boats. We're gonna get a lot of good boats coming in here. It's a great, great deal.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah, it's a huge win. And that's the goal, right? Is to get top talent anywhere you work. And used to in law enforcement, we we used to have to constantly grab, you know, people were trying to get into the agencies. Now law enforcement has taken a shift, and a lot of departments really have to recruit. So now we're at the point where we have the best contract to recruit with top talent.

Apply Now: Bonuses And Deadlines

SPEAKER_01 6:47

There's something that the public doesn't really understand is that intergovernmental recruiting is brutal.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Right? If you want to get into the public sector, it's a certain niche of people, and then you have all these different public sectors that are looking for a bucket of talent, it's very competitive. So anything that you can do to incentivize people who want to do this job to come do it for you, the more you get, the more selective you can be. And then we can take, like you said, the top talent. Because an organization is just an inanimate object. An organization is really made up of a lot of individual people. Well, if you get the best individual people and give them the tools, give them the training, give them the freedom and support to go do their job, that organization gets plugged into the wall and really lifts. And this is a major, major step towards that. So, what what's the end result to that? We're looking, still looking. We're not completely full. We have new positions coming because the city city is still growing. October was the new budget year. We have additional FTEs or full-time employees that we need to bring on board. We're still looking for cops. So apply, capecops.com. If you've never been a police officer, we'd love to have you and teach you, train you, and get you ready. If you are a police officer or a sheriff's deputy, locally, regionally, nationally, and you want to relocate to Florida or you want to come work for us, give us a look. And that lateral pay is up to five years. So if you did one year, you come in, you know, where you would be. If you did three years, you come in at three, four at four, five at five. It caps at five. So if you've been a cop for eight years and you want to come to us, you're not going to go in at step eight, but you'll go in at step five. And I'd be willing to bet that our step five is equal to, if not better, than your step eight where you're at right now.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

By far. I think it's really competitive. To add on to the ants, the city has allowed us to offer a$10,000 hiring bonus for new officers just within the city. If you come over to CAPE, you get the$10,000 hiring bonus. We have that till the end of the year. So with the new posting that we have, we are allowed to offer that up to the when the new posting closes, which is November 14th. So as long as you apply before November 14th, you're still eligible for the$10,000 hiring bonus. So really, there's never been a better time than right now to come over and apply. Even if you're not sure, maybe just throw in an application, see where it goes. And we'd we'd love to have all of the top talent in the area.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Plus, DeSantis's bonus is still in place for officers relocating to Florida. So there's a lot on the table.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

A lot of incentives. These prices won't last. Act.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I know. I feel like we're on like a used car commercial or something like that, and we're selling ourselves. But really, we are selling ourselves. And as someone who came from a different department and I came here, for me at least, the grass was definitely greener on the other side. And I mean, if you want to come over, do a ride along or something like that, just see what the agency's about. There's never been a better time to do it. Absolutely. Capecops.com.

Wellness As A Core Commitment

SPEAKER_01 9:54

That's it. And life's not all about money. Life's about wellness. Life's about making a choice to do something positive with your life and impactful with your career. We still have that. Our wellness program is super robust and getting better every day. It's not a program or go see this person. Wellness is infused into the DNA of the department. So we want you to feel great when you walk in the door. You made the right choice throughout your entire career. And when you walk out the door, you are a whole happy person, not a smoldering wreckage that did 25 years in a trauma-filled career. This is a great investment in yourself to do this career.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

The final bow on that is I am nearing the finish line in my career, almost 30 years. If I had to start all over again, I would do it in a second, and I would do it here.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

That's says a lot.

unknown 10:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

That's awesome. That's good to know. And I think it's good to put out there. This is the place to be. Be brave, be best, be cape.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

A lot of bees, the place to be. The place to be. I like it.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Anything else you want to chat about, Chief?

Project Spotlight: High-Water Vehicles

Funding, Delivery, And Storm Readiness

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Just one little follow-up. So we had talked about some of the projects and initiatives that we've been doing or and that we're looking to do. And I want to talk just real quickly, I'll do it super fast, the evolution of a project. I was walking in this morning and we got started a few minutes behind because our first high water vehicle is on the lot out back. And we had talked about that on the podcast that there was a need for it, right? Storm resiliency, rising waters. I'm not getting into why that's happening. It's just happening, right? So we got to be prepared. And I had the idea, and my the rest of my staff had the idea that not a not really going out on a limb that we need high water vehicles when you see some of the storms that we've had. But what the idea was is I don't want to have to borrow tools to do the job. I mentioned it already earlier today. The eighth largest city in the third biggest state, be brave, be best. You want to be the best, you don't borrow other people's tools. And in a high water situation, you're talking about a hurricane or a tropical storm. It's a regional impact. So I can't borrow a tool from somebody who's experiencing the same impact, right? I can't call up my buddy Carmine and go, hey buddy, can you send me your high water vehicles? I can't do it, dude. I got every All Miner out on the beach or all miner in Benita or in Estero or North Fort Myers. I can't, I need the tools. Well, we need our own tools. So that was the idea. And then our staff went to work. I got out of the way and let them conceptually design what they wanted. They vetted all the stuff. And then you get down to the operators who are going to be driving it and using it. It's multi-use. So we have applications for it on blue skies. And then we definitely have applications for it in gray skies or when we have to activate for a storm. And it didn't take very long to get those done. And I saw the first one and are rolling off the line. So we are ready. Mother Nature helped us out this year and gave us September off. So now it is October and we've got everything we need. I hope we never need it. I hope it's just a cool vehicle for show and tell. But if we ever do need those, we have them. And that's how a project works from idea to that you can't grab, it's just an idea. And then you put it in the concept and you can start to touch it, and then you get to operators actually doing it, and you get a physical product. That's one example of how a project happens here, from idea to data research to scientifically getting what you need to finding appropriate ethical funding and having it delivered. It is October. Our new budget is in. That process of idea research, implementation, and get happen. It's like the guy holding the sticks with the plates spinning.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

We have a lot of plates spinning at the beginning of the year to get those projects going. We just don't go to the store and buy all the stuff. There's a lot that goes into it. And that's one example. So we talked about it in here. It's in place and we are ready to rock. And we've got a lot of other projects just like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah, we're gonna have a lot more information about those vehicles soon on like our social media platforms. We'll take some pictures so we can show them off once they finish up a couple last details of it. But yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting when you see something you've been working on come into fruition like that. Yep. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Yep, we're storm ready.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Storm ready. Storm ready. We're ready to rock and roll.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

But let's not jinx it and let's just not have any hurricanes for the rest of this year. Maybe next year. Let's throw in next year, too.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

If we're let's throw in a good decade.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

We used to be on that time time frame.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

We deserve a break. Yeah. We deserve a good break. So anything else, folks?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Speaking of that, break. Have a great weekend. Yes. Happy Friday.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Happy Friday. Have a good weekend, everyone. We'll see you next time. Stay safe.