Cape CopCast

Chief's Chat #43: 75% Increase in Calls and the Truth About Flock Cameras

Cape Coral Police Department

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0:00 | 32:33

A 75% year-over-year jump in patrol calls for service is not a headline that should fade in a day, especially when staffing doesn’t rise at the same pace. In this episode of the Cape CopCast, we sit down with Chief Anthony Sizemore to explain what the second-quarter 2026 numbers actually mean on the street: more calls, more competing priorities, and a real-world squeeze on response times no matter how hard we optimize deployment. If you’ve felt like the city is simply “busier,” we connect that gut feeling to the data and the planning decisions it forces.

Then we dig into the kind of call that changes the way you look at “routine.” What started as a suspicious person report led to an officer finding a man hiding in a home's pool bathroom with multiple firearms and camo clothing, who said he was waiting for the homeowners to return. We talk through how the neighbor’s calls and our quick action may've prevented something catastrophic, and how community policing works when people share information early, confirm what’s normal, and trust officers to respond.

Finally, we address a topic that keeps swirling online: license plate reader cameras, including Flock Safety. We explain how these cameras fit into an organic investigative process, why they are not a “magic bullet,” what safeguards exist, and how privacy and the Fourth Amendment apply differently to private spaces versus public roadways. 

Welcome And Summer Call Surge

SPEAKER_02

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

SPEAKER_01

And I'm Officer Mercedes Simons. Together we make up the public affairs office and we have Chief Sizemore.

SPEAKER_02

Happy Friday.

SPEAKER_00

Happy Friday. Good to be back. My first week back.

SPEAKER_02

I know. You've had a nice vacation for the holiday. We had a big, busy week. I feel like everyone comes back from the Fourth of July holiday and it was like guns ablazon. We were busy. Uh we had like a swearing-in. We had a bunch of different events this week, junior detective uh day, which was really awesome.

SPEAKER_01

And we actually did have guns ablazin. That's one of the cases we're gonna talk about today.

SPEAKER_02

Of guns ablazin.

SPEAKER_00

So guns, thankfully, they weren't ablaze.

SPEAKER_01

I guess that's true. Okay, that's fair. That's fair. They could have been. I think that's the major point that we're gonna end up hitting on. But we've been busy. Our city has been busy. Our officers have been busy going to calls for service. A lot has been going on.

SPEAKER_02

And you kind of think of summer as like the slow months, but not necessarily here.

SPEAKER_00

No, we really don't have that anymore.

Data Shows 75% Call Increase

SPEAKER_00

And you mentioned the the uptick. I'm this year on 9-11 of all days is actually my 30th year in police work. And you develop over 30 years a certain intuition or a gut feeling on things, but you don't have to be a 30-year cop to get a gut feeling when you live in this town. And that gut feeling is it feels busy. There's a lot of people, there's a lot going on. You watch the news, you watch your social media feed, there's stuff, right? But gut feeling is not enough. You gotta have some scientific backup, you gotta have some, some, I call them data-informed decisions. And we run our numbers constantly. We run all kinds of numbers and data sets. And we got our second quarter activity for 2026. And we always like to look at it in a snapshot, but we also look at historical, short, medium, long term, see where we're trending, and just to know if our decisions are on track. Because you make a plan, you start executing the plan, you have to look at what you're doing to readjust and fine-tune and tweak.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So, in doing so, the second quarter, now this is just patrol. So we have six different bureaus in the building, but patrol is the most visible, and it's the one that gets the most uh customer interaction, we'll call it. You see the billboard dropping driving up and down the street. When you call the police, that's who comes. So that's the one that we use for a lot of our metrics. So this particular quarter, quarter two of 2026 for patrol, when compared to quarter number two of 2025, is up 75%. I'll say that again, 75%. Now, is that you know single-digit numbers? You can have big percentage jumps. No, just in quarter two, the patrol bureau, not our special operations, not traffic, not investigation, schools, any of that, just patrol. Over 42,000 calls they went on in quarter two, and that's a 75% jump from that time in the previous year. And then diving a little bit deeper into it, every single quarter is increasing. So our trend line is not a small number, but it's an actual long data set, multi-year. We go back three years for a good um scientific stamp on your look and feel. And it has looked and felt anecdotally that we've been getting busy. But when you look at that data trend line, it is not like this or like this, it is like that. 75% increase is noticeable.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That made me kind of sit back.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And it's not like we've had an increase like this in hiring. We hire what we have slots allotted for, and we have what what we're given.

SPEAKER_00

So you do just a basic um common sense math equation, right? So we have been allotted X amount of officers. We through we've been talking about it on the pod, but through um aggressive marketing and recruiting and hiring to get people in. And then once they're in, it's up to us and all of us to make sure that retention is high by having a good place to work. We are full. 330 plus spots. Yep. I believe we have nine vacancies. Awesome. But of the vacancies, we have more people in background than we have vacancies. So what that means is you're able to be very selective, get the right people here, and then have a pool of great candidates to be able

Staffing Math And Response Times

SPEAKER_00

to plug in. So for conversation's sake, we are full. So when you look at the other metric that we look for and that you at home would look for is how long does it take for when I call the police, for the police to get there on the serious things. And we'll talk about that guns ablaze and serious thing. It's a good illustration of that in a few minutes. But you have to have a certain amount of staff to meet that key metric of getting there quickly, consistently. You can have a an anomaly where you happen to be right next door to where something happened and your response time's a second. Or you could have something happen where there was a tremendous event that delayed a response. Though you throw those out and you look at a long data set of how long does it take to get there. So when you have the same number of people meeting that metric, and we are, we made significant changes in the way we're laid out, the way we deploy, and we talked about that on a previous one, and we are we have experienced success.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But if nothing changes, you just keep maintaining it. But there is a change. There is no change in the amount of people, there is no change in what we set as a standard to get there, but the amount of calls that that group is responsible to go to has increased in one year of 75% without any other dials being changed, then the response time has no choice but to increase. Right. Right. So that's a basic police administration math equation. So if we know that that's happening, we need to turn up the dial and increase the amount of people available to respond. And the more people you have available to respond to an ever-increasing, skyrocketing number of calls for service, that's how you keep your response times within the goal that I, you, and everybody at home wants. So it it's a little shocking, a little staggering, can be a little scary. I get that. But what's reassuring to me is that all of the planning that we're doing, it's validating that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So that's what we've done, and it's a responsible, um, we've done responsible data-driven modifications to what we've done, and I think that's got us to this point. That's why we've continued to be even more successful with pretty much the same amount of people, but I think we're just at that pain point that there's a limit. Something something's gotta happen to where we can continue providing the same level of service that we have been.

SPEAKER_00

You can only squeeze so much out of the piece of fruit before there is nothing left, and you need you need bigger. So the responsibility that I have in conjunction with my staff is to see that, recognize it, shine a light on it, tell the public, because that's who we work with, um, tell the policymakers or our politicians, elected officials who are representative of them, and the city administration who who works with us on our funding that we need more people, and this is why.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So that's what I have done. It's not a comfortable conversation, right? To go, hey, I need more. I know time I understand the headwinds and and the macro conversation about state, you know, I'm not going to talk about that. I know that. I'm not an idiot when it comes to that. But I cannot let that knock us off target of what I'm paid to do, what we're all paid to do, which is to deliver a service the best way we can, and we use all those tools to inform our decisions. I can't pull any punches when it comes to what we need. These aren't wants, these aren't we want to be better than this guy or have that fancy thing. These are the needs that we have to maintain and hopefully deliver an improvement. Yeah. But at a minimum, maintain the service level that people expect. Yeah. And the first thing that people expect is when you call the police, that a an officer is going to get there within a set amount of time. And then other things go into play. Are they going to have the tools and equipment that they need to do the job? Are they going to have the training that they need to do to deliver on the service that they expect? So there's a lot more to it, but the the takeaway for the public is you are correct in what you're feeling by it being busier and and seeing more things that happen. And I know you wanted to talk about one such instance that happened uh earlier

Suspicious Person Call Turns Dangerous

SPEAKER_00

this week.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. What's crazy about this is this came out as a suspicious person call.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So we've talked a lot about how our response times have improved. And a lot of times we specifically gauge our response times to handle the life and death priority calls. That's where we're really looking to make sure that we have good numbers. This call's kind of interesting because it didn't, it wasn't one of those calls that we responded lights and sirens to. It came out as a suspicious vehicle, a suspicious person. We get those all the time. We respond. We don't run lights and sirens to get there necessarily, but this call ended up being um, I think, really unsettling for a lot of people. So our officer goes, the neighbors say, Hey, there was a car there this morning. Um, they we confirmed with the homeowners, they're not supposed to be there, they don't know who it is. And so then they, the car and the man returned later that evening. And our officer, they said, Okay, he's back. We saw him go through the side yard. So our officer shows up, he's checking for unlocked doors to see where he's at. He goes into the lanai. The lanai was um unlocked, the lanai screen doors were unlocked. He hears something inside the bathroom, and then like a pool bath.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So this is like in the language, but it's, you know, part of the home, but it's outside. The entrance to get into the bathroom is from the outside. Got it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So our officer hears something in the bathroom. You know, obviously his uh like his the wheels start turning. He calls the guy out, um, you know, asks him to put up his hands, asks, what are you doing? And the guy's like, I'm waiting for the homeowners to come home. He detains him while he's detaining him looking over. He sees a rifle, two handguns, a camo jacket, all in this bathroom. Now to us, that's an immediate red flag. You are not A, not supposed to be there. B, your intentions are not what they are supposed to be.

SPEAKER_00

So And diving into it further, they made contact with the homeowners again. Nobody is supposed to be there. Um and then come to find out, you know, some people would ask, well, what's the relationship? Is this a domestic thing or is this a no? Right. This is not. This is a a homeowner that is, I believe, preparing to leave the area. There had been some sales on Marketplace. So there's people there at the house. This individual lives close and either saw what was going on, might have scoped it out. But this is absolutely a um, I wouldn't call it random, but a non-known entity. Not familial, not anything that would be oh, that that makes more sense, and you can kind of let your guard down a little bit. This is one where your guard is up through the entirety of it. And I've seen a few of these types of calls throughout my career where um the see something, say something, that that neighborhood that saw thought it was weird in the beginning and during the day when the scope out was happening, called the homeowner, got confirmation. That's pivotal because when they come back later, they already have that knowledge from the home. No, nobody is supposed to be there. And then they took the extra step to call us. Now, how does that tie into the beginning part of our conversation? Having enough people doing the things that you would expect us to do to be able to get there, get there quickly, and then know, know what we're doing. This looks like it could be a break-in, right? A suspicious person. We show up, we already have knowledge from the the neighbor. I spoke to the homeowner, nobody is supposed to be here. Heightened alert. Let's check and make sure somebody didn't break into the house. We might have a break-in right now, and then come to find out the guy is sitting in wait. You know, we got a heat index of a hundred degrees. The guy's got a big heavy jacket. Um, I believe there was some zip ties available.

SPEAKER_02

We got three different guns.

SPEAKER_00

Three different guns, and this wasn't a um tractor supply AR-15 that you buy over the counter. This thing was pretty heavily modified and ready to rock. Optics, lights, lights and a spontaneous utterance is what it's called, of what are you doing here? I'm waiting for them to come home. That's a that's a big red flag. So it it's an illustration to further highlight the fact that things are happening here. You know, I don't say that for hyperbole. Uh, I'm not a big theatrics guy. I think I've demonstrated that over the the time that we've been doing the podcast, but when something is serious, I can't hide it either. That's a very serious call for service, and it's not an anomaly. And we've had you know, shooting at the McDonald's a few weeks ago, there was an arrest made in that. We've had very high profile uh violent crimes.

SPEAKER_02

One thing I just wanted to point out is with the help of that neighbor, we were able to stop something potentially catastrophic. Yes. And even the officer, because you know, we see these things happen, we go through the body cam, and even the officer said once you know he got the guy in the car and then other officers started, you know, started communicating, he said, I could have died tonight. You know, he walks up, that person could have been used one of the three guns right there, thinking he was the homeowner if that was his intention, or just because he's oh shoot, I'm about to get caught.

SPEAKER_01

So it wasn't just a random burglary. If if you're gonna just burglarize someplace, you just go in, you steal stuff, you leave. Right. This was not that he's laying in wait. Right. He wasn't taking something. Um, and I think that's probably what's really um unnerving to a lot of people is it could happen to anybody because it's not a known party. It's something that you could be targeted for this and it could happen to you. And you want the appropriate police services and appropriate police response

Community Partnership Prevents Tragedy

SPEAKER_01

to that kind of call. It's really important.

SPEAKER_00

100%. When we talk about our I do this with the new guys that we that we s uh hire and swear in, and we did one yesterday. Um, their first day of pre-deployment training, I talk about vision, mission, value of the police department. And the mission statement of the police department is partnering with the community to ensure the highest level of safety for all. It's not a platitude, it's a real operational concept. And that call is in effect what that mission statement is: partnering with the community, setting the groundwork and the attitude and the tone beforehand that if I see something bad I can trust and I know that I can call the police department. And then they did. And right in that moment, a partnership was formed when the officers arrived on scene, made contact with the with the witness who reported it. That is a partnership with the community in action. And then doing everything that you've been taught, trained, and equipped and expected to do in fulfilling the ensuring the highest level of safety for all. Because, like you said, this wasn't a break-in to take a TV and go. This was somebody laying in wait to do something very, very bad or even worse.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

But it it leads me also into the fact that although we are one of the safest, we are not immune. No. And we've had a lot of headline grabbing we've had homicides, jewelry store owners tied up and robbed, calls like this we have our share, right? And when I tell people in community speeches, we are the seventh biggest city in the third biggest state. So if it's out there in the world, it is in here. Right. Right? So we have it. So I'll put that as a given. So if we're doing geometry, there's a given in a proof. Or if we're gonna have a a debate or an argument or a or a conversation, there is an irrefutable fact, right? And we have to agree on it. And the irrefutable fact is things happen here.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Right? Crime, violent crime, does in fact happen here. And the percentage is low, the opportunity for a random person to be victimized is low, is not zero, right? So it is there, and we've got the documented proof. So I am charged with ensuring the safety of the community. That's what the police chief's job is, and I have a talented, wonderful team that helps me do that, and actually does it for me pretty much. But I'm ultimately accountable for that. So there are lawful, legal, and very effective tools to do that job. First and foremost, human beings. Neighbors, community members, police officers, carbon-based people that do the job. That's number one. Training to make sure that those people know what they're doing. And then tools and technology that all plug in to get the job done. So all of those ingredients help to attack the fight. And the fight is that line that I illustrated. There are things happening. And I am accountable to make sure that we fight against it because we don't want the city to turn. I hear that all the time. We don't want this to turn, we don't want it to turn. I know what you mean. We want it, we like the way our lifestyle is, we don't want it to turn into big city problems, even though we are encroaching upon big city size and big city issues. So if I'm being held accountable to that fight, I need all the tools to be able to fight.

Why License Plate Cameras Matter

SPEAKER_00

And one such thing that is kind of bubbling up on social media, and I don't like to really acknowledge some of that stuff, but when you have conspiracy theory or tinfoily things that kind of bust through the membrane into the real conversation, I think it's time to address it. One of those is cameras. And in particular, there's a brand called Flock, and people um most people get it, but there is a group that either they don't get it or they just I ideologically are are opposed to it. But like any tool that that we have, if you use the tool the right way, that's what you're supposed to do. If you have a misuse or an abuse of the tool, you do not abandon the tool. Police cars. We use police cars as a tool for the job. If you drive improperly, speed, run red lights, are a bad driver, and you cause a wreck and hurt somebody, or God forbid kill somebody, that is a misuse of the tool.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

You don't eliminate the tool. There have been improper uses of a taser, improper, unlawful uses of deadly force with a firearm. It is a misuse of the tool, not the tool. Going along those same lines, technology. We have had the ability to run your driver's license, look at your picture, we've had the ability to look at your criminal history for decades. There are safeguards in place, and there are real punitive damages for abuse. Are there instances where people abuse it? Somebody looked up their ex-girlfriend. Yes, that has happened throughout the country. Here in the state of Florida, you are mandated to hammer hard on people who do that. You don't eliminate the tool. Cameras and flock safety cameras that are in the public street are no different. It is a tool that is very useful. Is that tool in and of itself a crime solver? No. It is but one piece of a puzzle. If the information that is gathered or garnered from that is abused, those individuals who abuse it will be dealt with like any other tool that is misused. But I'll give you an example of how they work and how they are not the magic bullet that people think

How Flock Supports Investigations

SPEAKER_00

they are, but they are pivotal. So we had a homicide here in the city. Won't get into the I don't want to get lost on that. Somebody was killed and some people that were on the scene or in the vicinity saw a vehicle leave. They got an idea what the vehicle looks like. They don't know make and model exactly, but it was a this blue sedan. So you start looking at traffic cameras, business surveillance cameras, flock cameras, anything that's going to pick up something that was described quickly. We pick up the it could be that make and model. Then you start using license plate readers. That make and model in that area, did any of them hit and get the license plate? We got one. Run it. Comes back to a rental car company. Call the rental car company. Who rented it? You go talk to the person who rented it. In each one of these stops, you don't stop everything and go arrest. It's a piece, right? So you find out who rented it, you go to the person who signed the rental agreement. Were you driving this car? I was not. Somebody else was driving the car, and I can tell you who. That's where you start. Even that is not enough to go make an arrest or violate civil liberties. But it certainly is a starting point.

SPEAKER_02

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00

That is that is how that technology works. If people do it, if they skip steps or use it to circumvent the legitimate organic investigative process, that is bordering on misuse, but certainly not good detective work.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

We do good detective work with that tool. The other thing uh I'll get into with that is the data that we have. We don't sell the data.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Flock doesn't sell the data. It's our data. It's voluminous, we don't have the staff, we don't have the interest to go looking for you. We just don't.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But if your vehicle description, your physical description, your tag number is affiliated with a violent crime, you certainly become more interesting for us to look at and use as a piece of evidence to work in the whole holistic part. So I want to go back to this fight that I'm charged with. I want you to fight the the evil that's trying to flip the city. And there's a lot riding on it. And we have something that's legal, ethical, effective, we trust you to help guide and make sure that there's no misuse. But we're gonna take that away. So we want you to fight the fight of your life, and we have something that will help fight and solve and deliver for victims and overall safety, but we want to put one hand behind your back and fight the same fight. It's asinine to me that that's a discussion.

Privacy Limits And Tool Accountability

SPEAKER_00

I understand the Fourth Amendment. Believe it or not, I've actually studied the Constitution, part of my job. Anything in your private possession, your phone, your computer, your home, anything like that is private. You need a judge to give you a search warrant with a lot of probable cause and facts and circumstances to allow you to get into that.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

We don't target that. This is in the public sphere. The Supreme Court is very clear on the Fourth Amendment and private things. They're equally clear on public space. There is not an expectation of privacy in the public. And I'm telling you, we don't have the interest or the time to go look for you. Right. If your behavior or alleged behavior backed up by other facts leads us to believe that you may be involved or may have some knowledge of that, you certainly now become more interesting to us and we can go find you. Based on that alone, that's not enough to take any action other than we need to have a conversation. That's what that's for. That's what I'm entrusted to do. That's what my staff is entrusted to do. But the idea that you would take something that is legal, ethical, and really if you want to talk to some of the victims that have found justice by these investigations, that that was one ingredient in the entirety of it. I think they would be a pretty big advocate that I want you to have all of the tools. I want um it's a given that we want you to do it responsibly and ethically and legally and not abuse it or misuse it. Assuming that that's the case, we want you to have all of the tools available to win the fight. And you know, we're fighting for all of society, but when it's you and it's your loved one, and you want answers and you want justice and you want somebody accountable for it, I want you to do everything legally available to do that. Definitely. And that's what we're doing. So I find it a little I don't know, it's it's troubling because I think there's so many misnomers out there and so many people aren't accurate. They're here, they're sources that they're getting it from. They're well-intended and they're fighting the their good fight, but they're not getting all the information. You know, I you pick a topic. There's a lot of topics like that. I don't know enough about data centers to go nuts talking about data centers, but some people are very informed on it and they are passionate and going after it. Other people have about as much information on it as I do, but they're going full speed into that sphere. I know enough that that's not my lane. I'm not going there. We have a lot of people who are really going hard and fast outside their lane, not really knowing what the what the facts and circumstances are with those with those tools. So I thought it was important to kind of maybe refocus the conversation on that. That we are fighting the fight to keep this community the way you want this community kept. And other communities are doing that too. But I can only focus on us, and we're doing it ethically, legally, and responsibly. And I would never advocate or concede to give up a piece of equipment or a tool that's going to help deliver that mission.

SPEAKER_02

Definitely. And it's, you know, uh to me, it just s speaks to that people don't know the whole story or they wouldn't be asked advocating for the same thing. Right. So that's my two cents on it.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Very good. So that's the commitment I have, is that any tool we have, firearms, vehicles, the system is called David, the driver's license database. I've been holding people accountable. And people, when I was coming up, held me accountable. We hold people accountable to the appropriate use of tools. There's a lot of stuff we have, a lot of abilities that we have, and with that power comes responsibility. You've heard that all the time. Well, the responsibility is to make sure that that power is checked and we're not abusing and misusing. And if there are instances of that happening, my commitment is that there will be heavy

Evolving With Tech And Staffing

SPEAKER_00

consequences on that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I know people are scared of technology, but it's one of those things. We've been doing our job and we've been doing it pretty well. And a lot of what's been helping us do our job so well and solve invest like different investigations so quickly is a lot of use of that technology. It's been incredibly helpful, and that's part of keeping our community safe.

SPEAKER_00

So it's been around for many, many years.

SPEAKER_01

We have to keep advancing, I think. We have to keep, you know, improving not only our staffing, our technology is just to keep going. We have no choice. We've seen our call volume increase almost like that's almost a double, almost a little bit short, but we're almost doubling our calls. We're not doubling the amount of police officers. So we need a bridge of technology and officers, and hopefully they complement each other and you know alleviate different things. Um, but we're not we're not going anywhere, and we have no choice but to evolve from where we're at.

SPEAKER_00

Right. And that's any industry anywhere, all the way to elementary school, is using some component of AI to not only do their work, I'm not talking about that, but assist and help. Yeah. If you don't embrace technology, you're left behind with any. And we've had these for many, many years, and it it's it's an exhausting part of my job. It's my job, I'm not complaining about it, but one of the things that wears me out is that there's so much technology and so many new advents and so many things that are expected of the police department. If you watch a television show and you see some of the things that happen, some of that's Hollywood, but there's a lot of reality to some of that stuff. And there is a well-founded, legitimate, I'm with them, expectation that, well, the police department's got it. If something happens, they're gonna do it. Well, it doesn't just show up right on Christmas morning under the tree here in the lobby. We got to go fight for that, advocate, show the need, find the funding, show the results. And we've done that, and that is our commitment for the the overwhelming majority of people who are like, yes, that's what we want from the police department. I want to call 911. I want you to get there quick. I want you to know what the heck you're doing when you get there. And if you need to find the people, I need you to find the people. That's what they expect us to do, and that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01

Yep,

Wrap Up And Stay Safe

SPEAKER_01

definitely. I think well said that pretty much I think that covers everything that we wanted to hit today.

SPEAKER_00

That's all I got.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It's only been 32 minutes, so I think we're good. That's awesome. Um, and I think it's really important information, and I'm glad we were able to get it out there. So uh, thank you so much for joining us. Chief.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, stay safe, everybody.

SPEAKER_02

We'll catch you next time. Have a good weekend.