FMPD Roll Call
The Fort Myers Police Department is taking listeners behind the scenes of the agency. Each episode will highlight department initiatives, community partnerships, and the people working to keep our city safe.
FMPD Roll Call
How Police Records Keep Cases Strong And Communities Informed
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Most of the time, you only notice a police department when something is going wrong. But the work that helps a case stand up in court, helps the public get answers, and keeps the whole system honest often happens quietly at the records counter. We sit down with Records Supervisor Alicia Sarge to talk about the side of public safety that runs on documentation, deadlines, and careful judgment.
Alicia shares her 18-year journey from starting as a janitor to leading the team that reviews the paperwork and digital evidence that flows through the department. We unpack what “records” actually means day to day: checking reports for accuracy, coordinating with the clerk of court and the state attorney’s office, guiding people at the front desk through stressful moments, and navigating Florida public records law with the right redactions and review steps.
Then we get into the scale. The department fulfilled 22,000 public records requests in a year, and a single request can involve dozens of hours of body-worn camera video, multiple officers on scene, and painstaking review. Alicia explains why the agency can provide records that exist but cannot create new videos or custom clips, and why that “15 minutes” can take far longer to process than most people expect.
Why Records Matter
SPEAKER_00Welcome back to FMPD Roll Call. I'm Megan Fuentes, your public information officer. When people think about a police department, they offer the picture, officers on the road, lights flashing, responding to calls. But there's another side to public safety that's just as important. The people who keep everything organized, documented, and connected behind the scenes. And often they're the first face you see when you walk through those doors. Today we're recognizing Records and Information Management Month. And I'm joined by someone who helps keep that entire system running. Records Supervisor Alicia Sarge, thank you for being here. Roll call begins now. Can you tell us a little bit about your role and what led you into records and information management?
SPEAKER_01Yes. So I've been with the agency for 18 years total. I started off, most people don't know, I started off as the janitor here at the police department. And so I did that for the first few years working here. And I thought it would be fun to be more of a help to the agency. So there was a records position opening. So I applied for that and made it in. So I spent five and a half years as a records clerk learning all the different positions. And that's where I kind of fell in love with public records. I I didn't know that that was even a job or even understood what public records was until coming into records. So it was so fascinating learning all the different aspects of the laws. And then I did that for a long time and became the public records person for the records division. And then I took the supervisor role about five after the five years in, and I've been there ever since.
SPEAKER_00What was that training like?
SPEAKER_01For public records? Yes. So it was a lot of learn as you go for here at first. And I did, we did take a few classes in person and we did a few online. So there's all different aspects, but I find for me, when learning public records, it was best hands-on.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I think a lot of people hear records, they don't immediately realize how important that is, especially as a role in our department. How would you describe what you do? Not just the tasks, but the impact behind it.
SPEAKER_01Well, I don't think most people realize that when you hear records and you hear a records clerk, you think they're just giving out reports. But behind the scenes, we're literally reviewing every document that is provided or done by the officers. Every report, every ticket, every everything literally runs through records and has to be reviewed by somebody. And we make sure that it's accurate. Because if we don't, things can be dropped. Things could it doesn't match up well with the clerk of court or to the state attorney's office. So making sure all those documents are perfect when they leave this department is the most important thing that job that records does.
SPEAKER_00And worst case scenario, what would happen if there wasn't that check-in balance?
SPEAKER_01There, we could lose a lot of cases because the state's not going to follow through. There's not enough evidence. There could be all sorts of issues.
SPEAKER_00You and your team often are the first point of contact when someone walks into the police department through the lobby. What's that experience like being the first face people see? Sometimes on a really difficult day.
SPEAKER_01Well, we always want to be feel helpful to that person. We know they're coming here. Not everybody coming to the police department is coming for a good time. They've either been in a car accident, something has happened to a loved one, or they them themselves have been arrested. So they're here for the report or their property and evidence. So we want to have that positive impact with them. So we always want to be friendly. We always want to make them feel like they're a person and they're heard and they understand the process of what we have to do. So it's not always a no, but they feel like they've they've gotten something from us.
SPEAKER_00And tell me about that. Tell me, like, obviously, since you are that first face that people see, what would you like them to know when they first walk into the building?
SPEAKER_01That we're here to help. That we're here to walk them through whatever process that may be. So if they come and they're looking for the report for a case, we have to walk them through, hey, if it's this type of report, we're gonna have to have it reviewed not only by us, by a different division division. If it needs to be redacted, we explain all those process processes and also what those redactions are. The accidents, a lot of people think you can just come in and get an accident. Well, that's not how that process goes. There's notarization of paperwork that has to be done because those are not always releasable at within the first 90 days of the accident.
Partners Outside The Department
SPEAKER_00So it's basically a learning curve, obviously, for the people who walk into the building and just like an explanation of you might not get it today, but you'll get it in an appropriate amount of time. Yes. Records interacts with so many different parts of the department and outside agencies. Can you talk about those partnerships and why they matter?
SPEAKER_01Oh, those partnerships are very important. And I will go back to my days of being a public records person as a clerk. I made a lot of partners with the state's attorney's office, their public records people, even the attorneys. I know a lot of the different attorneys around the city and even the state that we can call and explain how the processes go. Or if they don't understand what my clerk did, they'll call me and I'll walk them through the process because we've built those relationships over many years. And it goes both ways. Like if we're having an issue with paperwork, we could always call somebody at the state or wherever and say, hey, this is what's going on with the paperwork. How do we want to work together to get it right? And it's always been great. They always have an answer. And they can, even for us, if they can't figure something out on their end, they come to me.
SPEAKER_00And I love that. Yeah. Because I think the partnership's really, really important, especially for it it connects our detectives too with records, with other outside agencies, and everyone just kind of works together. I think that really speaks volume.
22,000 Requests And How They Cope
SPEAKER_01Well, and it also helps with everybody in the department. If somebody like the chief can come down, hey Alicia, do we have somebody that we can contact over at the state for this or over at this agency or at this attorney's office? We always have those connections to be able to help fill in whatever we need.
SPEAKER_00Now, the annual report, okay, because I definitely saw that. That was a staggering number. 22,000 records were filled by your department. Yes. How does that feel to see that number?
SPEAKER_01Because that is a staggering number. That's massive. I don't think people realize the amount of work that that team, my team downstairs, carries. And they're wonderful. Like I cannot say enough how much they work. Like they are a workforce like you wouldn't believe. And I will say I've met with many different agencies and they cannot understand how we keep up with what we keep up because that's telling you like one request for one request, but people don't understand. And that one request, there could be 70 hours of body cameras. So that one request is not a two-minute request. Like these are hours worth of requests.
SPEAKER_00Hours. That brings us to the workload, right? The workload and records can be intense. 22,000 records were filmed last year. How do you and your team distribute that work to stay efficient and make sure nothing falls through those cracks?
Learning Florida Records Law And Redactions
SPEAKER_01So we have a great system. We've put in the system we use that tracks all of our public records is great. It keeps us on track. It keeps us knowing where all the records are. We keep lots of notes in each one of those requests because if something happens to a clerk because they're out, we can go in there and pick that request back up and help. And again, this goes back to my team being very team-oriented. And if they see that, hey, this person has a lot on their plate, they come in and help. I have a team of four that just does public records, but I have a team of 11 total. Those other team members that are not assigned to public records will jump in and do the work just as much as my team of four. So it's always about getting things done. They they work together. That's a well-oiled machine, and I give all the credit to them. They've done great.
SPEAKER_00How long did it take you and your team to really learn like Florida public records law? Because it is extensive.
The Emotional Weight Of What They See
SPEAKER_01It is extensive. And I will say for a new clerk coming in, it takes them a good six months to a year just to get the basis stuff down. And that's more of the like things that are mandatory type of redactions. But then learning how our team, the detectives, redact their stuff, other things that come and go, because public records is not black and white. So it's what if it's one of those questions where it's like, if this, then that. But if this is also in play, then you got to redact that. So it's fine-tuning all those what-ifs, if-so's conversations. And it's a learn. We still learn every day. We learn all the time. We have things looked at all the time. It's a it's really a this again comes with our partnership with Bob Lee, our legal advisor, because he plays a great role as well. Because if I want to make clarity on something, I always make sure he's involved. What would surprise people most about what your team handles? What we handle, besides all the work we handle, we also have to see what the officer sees. I don't think a lot of people take that in perspective. That whatever your the officer's body camera, we have to see it as well. So any pictures that the officer takes, we have to see. Any report, obviously, they write with all the upsetting things that are that we still have to write about sometimes my team has to see. So I sometimes feel like that that may get overlooked is that they have to see that too.
SPEAKER_00Records may not always be in the spotlight, but the work is critical. How has your job changed your perspective over time?
SPEAKER_01Over time, I think when I first thought about a records clerk, I would probably be in the same category as everybody else. They just give out paperwork. But that's really not the case. That's not the case at all. They do a lot of the stuff behind the scenes, a lot of stuff to make sure things are accurate and things are getting over to the state and to the clerk in a timely manner. And also making sure that patrol is up to date on everything they need to have. We also make sure all the booklets and all their things are stacked and ready for them to go for the for their duties as well. So there's a lot of things that records plays into.
Recognition For An Unseen Team
SPEAKER_00Records and Information Management Month is about recognizing the work that often goes unseen. What does that recognition mean to you and your team?
SPEAKER_01It means a lot. It means like they're they're being seen for not just put giving out reports, that they're seen for all their hard work that they do behind the closed doors, making sure the reports are great and good for the to be sent to the state into the clerk's office. They feel as part of the team, they're not separated, that they are their job just as important as everyone else's.
SPEAKER_00Before we wrap up, what would you say to your team?
SPEAKER_01It's hard. I I have no words to say to my team because they're so amazing. Like amazing is not even a good enough word for what they are. They're a team that I literally could go, if I had to be out for a long period of time, could handle with me not being there. Like that's what I want for them is to know that I appreciate them from the bottom of my heart. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be where I am either. Like we're we're together. That's why so many of our admin assistants in this building were our records clerks at one point in time. So they do great work. And I see that command staff recognizes that as well. So I want to thank them. They're the best.
SPEAKER_00And what would you like to say to the public?
SPEAKER_01I think the public also needs to understand, too, sometimes is that when they make a request, sometimes they make a request and they ask for a shorter video, like a 15-minute video of an incident that happened. Under public records law, we don't have to create that video. We cannot we don't create documents or videos that don't already exist. So that 15-minute video would already have to exist for us to provide it.
SPEAKER_00It's also, I mean, they you your records click would have to go through hours of video just to get to that 15 because there might be something that leads up to it or something that that 15 seconds leads down that might also have to be redacted. So it's not just a 15-second video or 15 seconds worth of work.
SPEAKER_01No, it could take way longer than that.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So anything else you would like to add as we wrap up this episode for Records and Information Management Month.
SPEAKER_01I just want to thank my team. They're great.
SPEAKER_00And we appreciate everything they do. We really do. Thank you. They're great, they're an awesome group. 22,000 records that were filled last year. I cannot get over that number.
SPEAKER_01It's a it's a crazy number. Like, and it's only gonna get busier. That's only gonna get busier in the best way. With body camera, because you you've got to understand each each officer has three body cameras. So the more officers we hire, we always, you know, we're always staffing. So that's three more body cameras. So a one-hour thing can turn into eight or nine hours if how many officers show up on scene.
SPEAKER_00Well, we appreciate everything that you and your team do every single day. So thank you. Oh, thank you. Records may not always be in the spotlight, but it is a critical part of public safety and the people behind it make a difference in ways most never see. This has been FMPD roll call. Thank you for listening.