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Cape Coral Police Department: To maintain level of service, more personnel will be needed over the next decade

By MEGHAN BRADBURY 4 min read
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The takeaway message from the police master plan discussion during Wednesday’s Cape Coral budget workshop was that to deliver the same level of service, additional personnel must be added to the Cape Coral Police Department over the next 10 years.

Police Chief Anthony Sizemore shared information about Project 35, a 10-year comprehensive plan, which provides an opportunity to look a little further ahead than what the department has done in the past.

“What I realized is that we were not hitting the gas enough to catch up,” Sizemore said of the interactive growth model.

The department took the new initiative project and reverse engineered nine years backwards from what the police department is developing now for 2026.

“To keep us on pace to achieve our vision for 2035 that will do exactly what we are doing now, but scaled up for population increases for what is to come,” Sizemore said. “Increasing staffing is no doubt a paradigm shift. If you’re not being bold, you will be behind. I want to fully deliver being the best and finest law enforcement to our city.”

With that said, he said the CCPD will always provide life safety even if all the positions are not funded.

The plan will be fully published in a few weeks and available to council, and the public. There will be nine subsequent smaller books, as every fiscal year will have a submitting plan to stay on pace.

Currently, the Cape Coral Police Department is onboarding 10-12 sworn officers a year and two to five professional staff annually. The need is to dramatically increase those numbers to keep pace with the population growth.

To deliver the same expectations, Sizemore said they would need to onboard a minimum of 25 sworn officers a year and five professional staff annually.

Currently the CCPD has 320 officers with a vacancy rate of 3%. Professional staff sits at 100.

“We are virtually full and ready to onboard,” Sizemore said.

If the department goes on pace based on the interactive growth model, they will be between a 570-600 police department to maintain the services offered today.

Councilmember Joe Kilraine said he was very surprised at the staffing increase, but very impressed with his methodology.

“If the economic conditions slow growth, you can definitely turn the faucet slower,” Sizemore said.

Mayor John Gunter said it comes down to a very simple question — if the same level of service is wanted to move forward, and the population grows, they have no choice but to add additional personnel.

“If you keep the same baseline, then there is a reduction in services,” he said. “I don’t think any of us want to see a reduction in services.”

Gunter said if you want to continue to have the safest city, it comes with a cost.

There was also a discussion about the 911 operators’ recruitment and retention, as there is a problem of keeping these positions staffed. Gunter said they need to look into the root problem to see if they can fix the issue.

The presentation also shared proposed police department projects — a transition to quadrant-based, four cities model which would mirror the existing geographical quadrants – SE Precinct, SW Precinct, NE Precinct, and NW Precinct.

“You create vibrant, accessible areas within each part of the city,” Sizemore said.

There will also be special district overlays within the precincts. The examples he gave were for Coral Grove, SE Entertainment District and Hudson Creek.

“People that go there know the officers, and the officers know the patrons and businesses owners that go there,” he said, adding that officers will be designated for those areas.

Sizemore provided an update regarding the remodel of the existing SE precinct, the Chester Street facility. The SE precinct is the most pressing to do, but they may have to recalibrate the timing, he said.

“The footprint is the best footprint. It is owned by the city. It’s very limited to what you can do with it,” Sizemore said, adding that the building has to be remediated and elevated due to FEMA’s 50% rule, which requires upgrades to current standards when the 50% threshold is met or exceeded.