Change is coming to the Fort Myers Police Department

I am pleased to report that for the second time in Fort Myers' 122-year history, a citizen's petition drive has been successfully completed. We have worked for more than 17 months and gathered 4,400 signatures to support a civilian oversight panel for the Fort Myers Police Department.

We have built a broad coalition of ordinary citizens from different backgrounds and different points of view. They all have one thing in common: wanting a government that works for and respects them.

When we began our journey and started the process to change the way our government operated, those who were the powerful, dismissed our concerns and pretended that no problem existed at the FMPD. History has shown that our concerns were valid and even the government's own experts pointed out the numerous flaws in the police department.

When you — the citizens — began to raise your voices and participate in democracy by signing our petition, the powersthat be began to change their tune.

They spent $25,000 to hire an outside consultant to look into the department. They went from saying this was a small group of people complaining about how criminals were being treated to seeing veteran Councilwoman Veronica Shoemaker defeated because of her opposition to the oversight panel. We went from former Police Chief Hilton Daniels saying that there was no need for outside oversight to saying that he welcomes oversight.

Now those same powers at City Hall have appointed puppets to be an advisory group to the police department.

I have learned from my experience in politics that the citizens of this great city are not easily bamboozled. After the city council saw the handwriting on the wall, that voters wanted change, they decided to circumvent the process and appoint an advisory group for the FMPD. They were gravely mistaken to believe this would halt our efforts to get an oversight panel.

Mayor Jim Humphrey sought to preempt this citizen petition drive by appointing a group of political cronies to advise the FMPD. Would you believe that one of the members of this advisory group wrote a guest opinion in a local newspaper stating that there was no need for a civilian oversight panel? How can you be impartial when you come with your own prejudice and predisposition? A second member of this advisory group is a certified bail bondsman who does business with law enforcement. Isn't this a conflict of interest?

The citizens of Fort Myers want change and the political shenanigans at City Hall to come to an end. They want their voices heard and an elected panel chosen by the people of this great city. They have made it clear that they want the oversight panel to have subpoena power with the ability to call witnesses and to put them under oath so that the truth may be revealed. I want to thank all of our supporters who have stood up with us for the principle that no one is above the law, whether they be those who make the law, or enforce the law.