FORT MYERS, Fla. — At Monday nights city council meeting council members voted unanimously to allow the Department of Justice to allocate $40,000 to the Fort Myers Police Department for an initiative called “Project Safe Neighborhoods”.
In a statement, Fort Myers Police tell us, “This is start-up money to begin the formation of a task force to deal with violent crime. The task force includes the U.S. Attorney, Local Law Enforcement, and community leaders,” said Kristin Capuzzi, Public Information Officer for the Fort Myers Police Department.
Fort Myers City Councilman Johnny Streets says he is all for the initiative of wanting to create transparency and trust between police and the community. However, he does have some concerns regarding the experience level of the officers involved.
“Make sure when we do these operations or go into communities that we probably have the most experienced officers that we can so that they will have a very objective look at what their jobs are, as opposed to having a younger officer who perhaps has never done this before. So I’m looking for experience but I’m looking for protection of not only the officer but of the community,” said Councilman Johnny Streets.
As a retired member of law enforcement Streets says it is vital to bridge that gap between community and police.
“To not have this adversarial that some might say that we don’t want the police, and that’s not true, but I want the police to feel that they are welcome in the community and I want the community to feel like we need them in our community,” said Streets.
One Fort Myers resident agrees, telling us he's happy to see police and the city take a stand to end violent crime. However, he too is concerned about the experience level of officers involved and how they could react to certain situations.
“ I am concerned about if they have the proper training. You know, you have a lot of people with mental problems, you know, how to react to a mental person or a person that is having some type of issue instead of going and using force and shooting somebody,” said Robert Campbell.
