Chief's Chat #29: Update on Armed Robbery Investigation & Project 35

A jewelry store robbery, a spouse watching a live surveillance feed, and a suspect arrested across the state before the day was over—this is what happens when real law enforcement partnerships are built long before a crisis. In this episode of the Cape CopCast 'Chief's Chat,' we pull back the curtain on how our FBI Violent Crime Task Force detective, close coordination with the U.S. Marshals, and a ready-to-go network of resources turned a violent incident in our city into a swift, safe resolution for the community.

From there, we zoom out to the bigger picture: how do you keep pace with a fast-growing city without sacrificing service, response times, or trust? We share an update on our Project 35, a data-driven plan that designs the agency we need by the year 2035 and then reverse engineers every year between now and then. We share how we align staffing, technology, vehicles, and training with actual demand instead of guesswork. You’ll also hear how we tie strategy to dollars so budgets aren’t wish lists but accountable, measurable investments. 

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year Kickoff And Setup
• 0:35 Jewelry Store Robbery Overview
• 1:18 FBI Partnership And Task Force Role
• 2:34 Suspect Identification And Rapid Arrest
• 4:07 Myths About “Feds Taking Over”
• 5:45 Strategic Planning Begins
• 7:05 Project 35: Vision For 2035
• 9:06 Precinct Model And Community Hubs
• 11:08 Budget Integration And Accountability
• 13:10 Leadership Approach And Team Expertise
• 15:05 Data-Driven Staffing And Peak Hours
• 17:20 Closing: Momentum For The Year

Transcript

New Year Kickoff And Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Happy New Year and 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. Today we have surprise, surprise, Chief Anthony Sizemore.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Welcome back for another Chiefs Chat and Happy New Year. How you doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Happy New Year. Great to be here. Great to start off 2026. We figured we'd definitely the first week we've got to get back in the saddle.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Absolutely. And uh I think we have a lot to talk about. It's been a busy first week back.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Already. Already.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Guns blazing. We're ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

So one of the things that we had that was major this week was an armed robbery at a jewelry store. Did uh we immediately went over, began investigating, found exactly what happened, and then we dive in very deep from there.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Yeah, 100%. Um obviously it was a big story, lead story on the news, uh, as it should be, right? You don't want to live in a community where that's buried uh in the D block, right? That's a news term.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yes, definitely uh great job.

FBI Partnership And Task Force Role

Suspect Identification And Rapid Arrest

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Um a block story. So we had a uh violent robbery where a um business owner was bound. Uh real deal jewelry store robbery uh was discovered uh through surveillance. They have surveillance cameras in the store, and the spouse was at home and saw it on the phone and called us, and when we got there, the suspects had fled. But what's important to note is the immediacy of our response, uh, our partnerships that we already have established with other entities, uh one of which is the FBI. Uh we have a detective on our staff, a CCPD detective, who is assigned to the FBI Violent Crime Task Force. We have that's a long-standing partnership. We work a lot of cases with the FBI that don't make the news, um, but they're significant. Uh, they're a great partner for us, and we are a great partner for them. Um field offices and local offices are really dependent for all of the federal agencies on local law enforcement participation in these task forces. We happen to have a very talented career detective who's um got just a wealth of knowledge, uh, a lot of fire and passion for the job, who's assigned to that. So when when you see a story that we involved the FBI, that that is something that would make you kind of listen, but it's not unusual. That's a that's an everyday blue sky thing for us. What it does is it opens up a wealth of resources for us, technological resources and other uh tools uh that the federal government has at their disposal. So we immediately went to work on this case, uh, developed a suspect, uh, began tracking them, set up on the location, and I can tell you, um, he's in custody, which is great. Um, there's no more threat to the public. The investigation is still ongoing because there's there's uh with any case like that, there's a lot of information that we've got to uncover and put together. Excuse me, but the important takeaway here is that uh we got the guy, and the the community is safer today uh because of those efforts and because of those partnerships. I think that that's that's a big takeaway for the community is that when you see a hate crime at a religious facility or a significant event like this or a bank robbery or something where other jurisdictions will call in, quote unquote, the FBI or a significant missing persons case, or have they called in the FBI? That's that's a little Hollywood. We don't have to call them in because we're already embedded with them. Right. And they're embedded with us. So if the circumstances dictate that that partnership needs to be activated, then it's seamless, right? There's a phrase you never want to be exchanging business cards in the middle of a crisis. You want to have those relationships established long before so that when a crisis or a big situation arises, all you have to do is make a phone call. And that's what we did, and and the results speak for themselves.

Myths About “Feds Taking Over”

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Definitely. And the arrest was pretty quick. I mean, for someone to have fled not just the city, but the area and be in a complete other part of the state and be arrested that quickly, right? I want to say within the same day.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Local law enforcement, federal law enforcement with the FBI, and also the U.S. Marshall Service for um location arrests and transport. Um, that that's just what it's about. That's what you would expect when you look at um a lot of craziness on TV and a lot of talk about uh feds and and law enforcement, but the real story is what happened in this case, where you have local local law enforcement partnering with the feds to put a bad guy in jail and make the community safe. That's that's what I'm proud of.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Yeah, it's pretty funny, like versus what you see on TV when it's like, oh, the feds come in and they took our case and we're mad about it and we're trying to take it back. That's not that's not what we do, that's not how we do it. That's why we have uh people and partners in play to be able to work together. Right. Because we have resources, they have resources, and then we can combine forces to get crime solved. That's what we're we're there for each other. It's not like it's not an argument over whose case is it and no, we want it. It's a it's a true combined forces thing that we're really proud of.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

I've seen those shows where we're working a case and all of a sudden some suit walks in and we'll be taking this. That's not how it is. I there could be some some jurisdictions where there's ego involved, but if you're a professional outfit in a real police department and and real field agents on the uh in a community, the goal is a shared goal and egos need to be left at the door, and that's reality.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

100%. Definitely speaking of egos left at the door, we also did kind of a partnership thing yesterday at our department, what we call strategic planning. Uh so the the chiefs, the captains, bureau commanders, everybody gets together and we talk about what we need for the next budget year. So we had started talking about that yesterday. That's actually a pretty big deal because it allows us to plan not just for today, tomorrow, next year, five years out. We worked uh 10 years out, and we're still um, you know, making sure that we're on board with everything that we need and what we need to ask for.

Project 35: Vision For 2035

Precinct Model And Community Hubs

Budget Integration And Accountability

Leadership Approach And Team Expertise

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Sure. Uh strategic planning is not a set it and forget it exercise. It is a continual, um, ongoing process, and it runs um parallel to municipal budgeting. Municipal budgeting, I've always joked, is like hockey, right? There's not very much of an off-season. You go all the way through to the Stanley Cup, and it seems like a couple weeks later they're doing preseason hockey and already going. Uh with budget, the Stanley Cup is when the budget gets adopted, and then the celebratory period is really the work where you start hiring the people that you've lobbied for, that you've advocated for, you start acquiring the equipment that you budgeted for. And then as soon as the confetti is done falling, you have to start planning for the next year. So we have already done that in the city in earnest. Uh, the first budget workshop is going to be the end of January. Um, we've talked about it in the past. We have a very scientific and strategic way of growing, right? We have I have two full-time jobs at the police department. One is uh administering the agency day to day, and I rely on my team to do all the smart work for me. And the second full-time job I have is growing a police department that was short-staffed when I inherited it. Five years later, we are still growing exponentially and um still struggling to catch up with the exponential growth that we have in the community. So when you have a growing city and a growing department, that's a full-time job if you're doing it right. What you don't want to do is go into budget season and say, what can you afford to give me? It it that's not a very data-driven, scientific, yeah, thoughtful approach. So we created a project called Project 35. And we did it last year, which was in 2025. We looked ahead. The 35 in that is 2035. So what do we look like 10 years from now, right? People, places, and things. How many officers do we need? What's the infrastructure look like of our personnel and our chain of command to be able to deliver the service that people have come to expect today? So when you have a continued high pace of growth, if you do nothing and you blink, it's 10 years from now and you're significantly behind and you're not able to be on top of both crime suppression, crime detection, crime solving, and quality of life issues, right? We're a big concierge service quality of life community. So we have to be able to forecast and plan for where we need to be. Well, you can't do that unless you can envision what it is that you are going to be 10 years from now. So we created a scale model, if you will, of the police department in 2035. How many officers are we going to need? We have the four precincts. So what does each precinct look like, right? From a from a structural standpoint, a a substation, how are they staffed? How are they led? So we'll have a captain in each one. So each precinct will be like you, that that is like television, right? So you have a precinct, and there's a precinct captain, there's detectives that work in that area, there's administrative personnel that work in that area. It's also a community hub, a resource if you live in that area. You don't have to come to this facility. You go to your local precinct, one in each quadrant of the city. Well, you have to, you have to staff that and you have to show what that skeleton looks like. So that's what we've done. So we took 2035, how many cars, how many people, what kind of uh programs or products do we want to offer? Uh, how do we stay on top of technological needs? How do we how do we stay on the forefront? We are on the forefront now, how do we remain there? If you don't actively and intentionally work to stay the best, then you will not be the best for long. So that's kind of the guiding light of what we do. So every year we meet, and all of the the brains of the building meet. So our captain of patrol and special operations and detectives and our planning and research people. Um, you guys were in there to to talk about 10 years from now, we need to be this. So let's reverse engineer that nine years to if we want to be here, then we need this amount of people, this amount of programs and products and things this year. Next year we're gonna need this, next year we're gonna need that, and that will keep us on pace for where we ultimately need to be. So uh Wednesday was that meeting where we talked about um do what do we have to shuffle, what do we have to recalibrate 10 years from now? Because we did it last year. If we do nothing with the plan, it could be way off track. Conditions on the ground, economic conditions, societal conditions, demands, technology, things change. So you have to make little adjustments throughout it. And that's what that meeting was. It's several hours, and each one of our Bureau commanders comes with this is what I need to be able to be successful moving forward. These are the innovative programs I want to implement. And to do so, I need these people, I need this equipment. And then the important thing for us is a strategic plan is simply a wish or an exercise if you do not marry it to finance and budgeting. So we provide the cost. And it's an open book, it's not we're not hiding. I don't spring it on them, them being the the finance department or city officials or the people who approve our budget. It there's no surprises. It's it's our plan right now. And in the the coming months of the budget process, I share this plan and it becomes the plan of the city. So it's our plan. And it also becomes the plan of the city council. And in a representative form of government, the city council represents the people. So if it's their plan, it's everyone's plan. And we keep that updated. So it's a it's a really intentional way of ensuring that the services and delivery of those services that you have today, right? That is award-winning, uh, proven to be effective, second safest city in Florida, uh, internationally accredited, uh, a model agency for others to follow, that's today. If you don't continue to work on that, those accolades won't be there. So we intentionally plan. So then when instead of what I mentioned at the beginning of this rant, that I go in and go, what can you give me? I don't do that. I go in with a published scientific data-backed white paper that says, I need this. And then, you know, that that's where um different circumstances and financing and funding and macroeconomics of the country can, what can you afford? But if we can't afford to staff all of it, then there is a reduction in some level. And that's where we come in to ensure that safety is always a prior priority.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

Absolutely. And it takes everyone to come together, all the people that were in that room. I don't know, what was there, 12 of us or something, to come together to really come up with a plan that we, you know, workshop through and there's gonna be more meetings discussing this, and this is just kind of the first step. But it's nice to know, you know, everyone knew first week. We get back to work, you know, the holidays are great. We were having fun. It was a fun month here at the department in December, a lot of good events going on. But coming in first week of January, we're ready to rock. It's busy. I remember you saying, take your time now. Like if you need a break, take your break now because we come in January and it's off.

Data-Driven Staffing And Peak Hours

SPEAKER_01 14:17

We're ready to rock. You know, holidays are great. Enjoy them. I did say that. I walk around. I hope you're enjoying it because when we come back, it's on. And um uh some people may mistake the fact that I'm the one who presents a lot of the budget, but I am not the one, I'm not the king of the Cape Coral Police Department. I don't come up with all of the plans. This is my idea. I share it with a lot of talented, uh invested people. And that was one of the takeaways I got yesterday. Uh, November marked five years that I've been the chief. So I'm into my sixth year, and it takes a while to get a direction going in the way that you envisioned. So five years ago, I had a vision of what I wanted us to be, the direction I wanted us to go. Not that we weren't in a uh a good direction before, but rapid growth and expectations and changes, you have to adjust. So it's a big cruise ship to turn, takes a long time to turn it. It's now been five years, and that cruise ship is pointed in the right direction. I have the most engaged, plugged-in, knowledgeable bureau commanders and captains. I have the best planning and research person in the country. I'll put that up against anybody. And I have the benefit of kind of laying out what we're doing, why we're here, and then sitting back and letting those people earn their money and exercise their passion because they care about it, right? It's you don't get a lot out of it if I sit them all down and say, you listen to me for the next two hours and this is what we're gonna do. I could do that, it would be quick and it would be easy, but it certainly would not be best, right? So I want people who um the the captain of investigations, I know investigations, I worked in investigations, I'm I'm in charge of the police department, so I know it, but I don't live it every single day like he does. Captain Rosario is is in it, and he just has a much more refined immersive knowledge of where he's at now, where he needs to go. I'm a fool if I don't listen to him, right? So that's what I do with all of them is I provide the tools, I put the right people in the right spot, provide them with the tools, training, and support. And the most important thing I do is get out of the way and listen to them. And then when we get all of that information, we put it together in a package, and it it it stands up to scrutiny that this is what we need. I don't give them a big list of wants and glitch and glamour. These are the these are the things that I need to be successful, and so far, five years, it's been very good.

Closing: Momentum For The Year

SPEAKER_00 16:56

So yeah, the thing, the the big takeaway for me yesterday that was very impressive, the captain of con uh of patrol, Captain Kearney, he didn't just come to the table with like grand thoughts and ideas he did, but they were also backed up with a lot of data. Yeah, he had a lot of different data to show, hey, maybe here's an inefficiency, here's how we fix it, and here is basically the the problem, the solution, and all of it was very data-driven and solution-oriented. And that is like the prime example of who we put in place to be able to do the job. We don't just come with what we think we need, we come with what we know we need.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

That was number one of the three points, put the right people in the right spot. So just to give a quick illustration that people can can take away, we're already doing award-winning work, but is it perfect? No. Is there room for improvement? Yes. So let's let's really take a non-egotistical self-look and see if we can do better. And one example of that is in a 24-hour period, um, he went to the data and showed uh on a timeline, right? So you got you know, midnight or 1201 all the way to 1159, and it's a graph hour by hour of call volume. So there are certain peak hours where the call volume is higher. So we need to alter staffing. You still have to have staffing 24 hours, but we can we can increase or kind of flood the zone in those busier times. So it that is the analogy that I've given many, many times where you're cleaning with the lights on, right? You can clean a bathroom with the lights off and feel your way around. And but if you turn the lights on, you're gonna do so much better. That was an illuminating uh exercise where he he used the data to turn the lights on, and then we're gonna apply for and acquire and deploy based on that scientific data, and you will see results in the community.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Yeah, absolutely. It's it's exciting to see what's going to come, not just this year, but in the next few years. And I mean, we're cranking it out, we're keeping it, we're keeping it moving here. So as the city grows, so will we.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Very good. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

I think it pretty much covers a really busy week that we had. Um, and you know, we started the year off with a bang and we're headed in the in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Onward and upward.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Onward and upward. Let's do it. All right. Well, thank you so much for uh joining us, and we will see you next time. Yep. Stay safe.