CODY DULANEY, and FRANK BUMB

The News-Press

Alleged police corruption was never investigated. Officers were directed to deal with the public in a “heavy-handed” manner. A drug-trafficking network has operated with near impunity in Fort Myers, even killing witnesses. And an overwhelmed Fort Myers Police Department has failed to develop a strategy to deal with that network.

A scathing 72-page report released Wednesday outlines a toxic culture within the Fort Myers Police Department that prioritized maintaining “the illusion that the city was a safe place and that FMPD was effectively policing the city,” while doing little to combat a growing problem of gang and drug-related violence.

The Fort Myers City Council paid Freeh Group International Solutions, a Delaware-based consulting firm, $150,000 to perform the audit last May. It began weeks after a News-Press investigation revealed ongoing accusations of racial discrimination and retaliation against officers who complained.

DOCUMENT: FMPD Needs Assessment Report

The consultants were given unfettered access to the department and all its members for several months, and officers were promised anonymity to ensure a candid discussion, said Robert O’Neill, managing director of the Freeh Group. They emerged with 32 recommendations, and the very first one is to investigate allegations of officer misconduct that surfaced during the audit.

“As a city manager, I wanted to make sure that I understand what is going on in that department, and so the new chief understands what he is getting into,” City Manager Saeed Kazemi said during a press conference announcing the report. “But now we have a roadmap that we are going to follow.”

Internal and external problems

The report points to a buyout program offered in 2008 as the start of the department’s troubles. Fort Myers was just starting to feel the effects of the Great Recession, and budget cuts were coming across the board.

The buyout led to a sudden departure of FMPD’s most experienced officers, investigators and leadership, and in many ways, the department never recovered, the report said.

In addition, there is a strong belief within the department that favoritism has infected all aspects of FMPD, the report shows. This includes promotions, giving out assignments or training opportunities and handing down discipline.

“The great majority, if not almost every single person we interviewed, said there was a clique issue,” O’Neill said. “You either were in or you were out, and many of them really felt that was a problem. As do we.”

The favoritism appeared to extend to officers who’d compromised search warrants. Several people told investigators that some of their fellow officers leaked information to drug dealers regarding search warrants.

“It does not appear that these matters were ever addressed by the Department. Instead, these officers, who were not trusted by other officers, witnesses or outside agencies, were promoted and allowed to serve in positions in which they had the ability to compromise sensitive investigations,” the report says.

Preferential treatment in the promotion process led to an imbalance of experience, the report shows. There are too many people in leadership positions with experience in narcotics, and not enough people with experience in homicides. Underqualified leadership has created a “culture of failure and defeatism.”

Officers told the consultants they “believed that key stakeholders have often resorted to blaming external forces, like the State Attorney’s Office and the minority community, rather than looking critically within the Department in an honest effort to identify solutions,” the report says.

Discipline was not consistent. Three officers believed to have been untruthful were investigated by the department, but only one was directly asked about whether he was untruthful, putting him in jeopardy. That officer, who is black, was fired. The other two officers were not asked about being untruthful. They are white. But the black officer reported that he didn’t believe race was the underlying factor. It was favoritism, the report says.

The problems also bled into the community.

“Officers were directed to increase arrests and citations for minor infractions in order to increase the Department’s reporting of statistical accomplishments,” the report says. “Instead of assigning appropriate resources to unsolved homicides and shootings, officers were directed to deal with the general public in a heavy-handed manner. Rather than remove violent offenders from the city, this practice spawned complaints from the general public and appears to have exacerbated tension and dis-trust (sic) within the communities in which these actions took place.”

On top of that, citizen complaints of harassment were not addressed the way they should have been, which aggravated tensions between police and the community.

The issues outlined in a News-Press investigation about a joint task force were actually systemic throughout the department, as detailed by the Freeh Group’s report.

Poor outcomes

These “heavy-handed” interactions in the community were the result of FMPD leadership pushing to emphasize statistics, creating an illusion of safety for the city and an image of competency for the department, the report said.

Short staffing also led to overwhelmed homicide investigators, who were then expected to work alone and solve homicides in two weeks.

“In homicide investigations, investigators do not work in teams and do not have partners. As a result, the primary investigator is typically overwhelmed with responsibilities…,” the report said. “Investigators ask each other for help on an informal basis but are routinely reassigned to other matters. If a murder is not solved within the first two weeks, the primary investigator is returned to the rotation of detectives eligible to assume the lead on a new case. This occurs routinely and as a result, high-profile investigations, even those that could be solved, become unaddressed matters.”

That has led to a pattern of violence where drug and gang-based violence then turns into residents – skeptical of the FMPD’s ability to protect them from the gangs – taking matters into their own hands. A spiral of “retaliatory violence,” that the FMPD has not been able to break.

Further, the report details the explosive revelation that a drug-trafficking network has operated with near impunity in Fort Myers, even killing witnesses.

“Additionally the Department has not been able to develop a successful investigation of a drug trafficking network responsible for numerous murders, including the murders of witnesses. There has been a lack of a focused and coordinated strategy to address the most significant criminal enterprises in the city,” the report said.

Few details on that network were available in the report due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.

Overwhelmed investigators, a skeptical community that fears to cooperate with FMPD for fear of their own safety and a pattern of retaliatory violence are all detailed in the report. One exasperated detective bemoaned the department’s ineffectiveness and how the community was assessing the risks.

“Cookouts and basketball are great but how do we let good people know we will remove the bad ones,” the unnamed detective told investigators.

Recommendations

The report listed 32 recommendations under four tiers. Tier 1 recommendations were marked “to be implemented immediately.” The number one recommendation is to investigate allegations of police misconduct regarding drug search warrants discussed in the report.

That recommendation flows together with several recommendations related to the department’s leadership and culture. One recommendation, number 14, said every supervisor should be interviewed on their leadership abilities and past performances.

“Undoubtedly, there will be individuals who will resist the changes that must be implemented in order to move the Department forward,” the report said. “The Chief’s greatest challenge will be to identify future leaders who are willing to sacrifice personal ambitions and preferences in order to do what is best for the Department and the City of Fort Myers.”

Other recommendations call for a pooling of investigative services meant to streamline the flow of information and solve more homicide cold cases. Because murders go unsolved, the report said, the city is consumed by a “pattern of retaliatory violence” the department needs to break. A stronger relationship with community members – especially the minority community – was also the focus of several recommendations.

But more long-term issues – the Tier 4 recommendations, which should be implemented over five years – focus on hiring additional officers and providing better technology for faster investigations.

Fallout

Changes have already begun for FMPD.

Police Chief Derrick Diggs took over in August. He quickly identified a gang problem and organized a gang suppression unit, which he says has thwarted as many as six mass shootings since its inception. Diggs also hired two consultants to help bridge the gap between the police and the community through several engagement sessions.

But one of the immediate recommendations for the department was to “ensure that the Captain that serves as the Commander of the Investigations Bureau is trusted and respected by officers and outside agency partners.”

The former head of Investigations Bureau, Capt. Melvin “Duke” Perry, was temporarily replaced by Lt. Jay Rodriguez. That replacement came on Tuesday, just before the report’s release to the public.

What, exactly, led to Perry’s replacement was not immediately clear as an FMPD spokesman declined to comment because of state laws regarding the confidentiality of complaints filed against law enforcement officers.

But that change appears, at least in part, as a facet of the culture change that Chief Diggs has repeatedly discussed, and recommended by the report, to clean up and revitalize an overwhelmed FMPD.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

Investigation: Accusations of discrimination, retaliation persist at FMPD

Analysis: Fort Myers violence task force crackdown fell short

Fort Myers police: 14-month investigation nets 21 arrests

FMPD creates gang unit, says it thwarted 5 mass shootings