HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020 06 09 Letter RE: Police Department StatusCITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA
SHAWN BOYLE
City Manager
June 9, 2020
1126 East State Road 434
Winter Springs, FL 32708
Re: Police Department Status
1126 EAST STATE ROAD 434
WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA 32708-2799
Telephone (407) 327-1800
www.winterspringsfi.org
Honorable Mayor and Commission:
The City of Winter Springs takes the protection of our citizens' rights very seriously. The recent
events that occurred in Minneapolis remind us that compassion and training is a journey, not a
destination. We can only achieve the desired results of protecting and serving the public through
continual evaluation and improvement of our processes. As such, we feel it is important to
discuss the operation of our police department, the department's core values, and the steadfast
commitment to the community that our officers and personnel have held for over the last sixty
years.
This our home and we are proud to serve the residents and businesses of Winter Springs.
Throughout the years, our department has renewed its focus as a customer service based agency.
This evolution includes establishing internal accountability, fostering community ties, meeting
with residents and business owners, and expanding our reach through service programs. Without
a professional and dedicated community policing agency, a community cannot thrive.
Conversely, without the support of the community, police departments fail.
To become a member of this team, we require certain personality traits. We regularly search for
these traits in applicants and, in an absence of these traits, we have released probationary officers
from full-time retention. We have maintained a high level of expectation for the "right fit" even
through times of high turnover and a lack of qualified candidates. Our pre -employment process
is second -to -none. Recruiting, processing, and candidate screenings are detailed and involve
several department and leadership levels of approval. This will not change, as it is critical to
have the best of the best at our agency and to ensure our officers know how to communicate,
deescalate situations, and utilize strong conflict resolution strategies.
Recently we have received questions from citizens and special interest groups alike demanding a
"call to action" on the part of community leaders to address topics focused on police department
reforms and methodologies used to do the work of the people we serve. The core competencies
of successful law enforcement leaders demand that we not only monitor our own operations but
also to find ways to improve customer service and adjust or review current policies. Policy
Manuals and Standard Operation Procedures are living documents by nature and should never be
unattended for long.
Policy review and comprehensive reporting are part of our daily and regular function and is
required to maintain our accreditation. We have been accredited since 2003 and are an excelsior
agency with the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation (CFA). An agency
does not achieve and maintain this status without solid policies, reviews, and training for its
personnel. Some facts and numbers for consideration from the period of June 2010 until June
2020:
• All officers and City personnel are required to attend diversity and harassment classes
• All officers are required to attend regular Discriminatory Profiling & Professional Traffic
Stops training
All officers are required to attend regular Domestic Violence training
• All officers are required to attend regular Human Trafficking Investigative training
• All officers are required to attend regular Juvenile Sexual Offender Investigative training
• All officers are required to attend regular Physiological Response Dynamics training
• Annually, officers are required to complete in-service training for the use of force
(updates on changes to laws and refreshers for statutory regulations)
• 211,049- represents the approximate number of police reports taken where we have
documented citizen contacts, including traffic stops and physical arrest situations
• 5,754 — Represents the number of arrests the police department has made during that time
• 198 — Represents the total number of times officers have been forced to respond to
resistance from citizens during those encounters. Only two of these are deadly force
applications which were reviewed and found to comply with policy and state law. One
was in 2011 involving a motor vehicle attempting to strike officers while fleeing from a
felony scene and the other from 2016 where a suspect in a case involving inappropriate
acts on a child armed himself with a knife and advanced on officers there to question
him. There have been no suspect deaths while in our custody.
• 0.094% - represents the percentage of our total citizen encounters resulting in any
application of any defensive action at all. This is a direct result of proper selection,
training, and development of our sworn police officers.
Our members are purposeful, compassionate, professional, respectful, and polished caretakers of
our community who know what to do and do it right. City leadership and the Winter Springs
Police Department remain committed to our mission of working alongside our community for
the common good.
Respectfully,
•t J
Shawn yle
Chris Deisler
Ci anager
Chief of Police