On Wedenesday, August 21, the Plant City Police Department (PCPD) held a community meeting at Sadye Gibbs Martin Community Center. These meetings offer Plant Citians an informal opportunity to get to meet PCPD officers, and have a discussion about matters relevant to the community.
With the hiring of Chief Mills, and Deputy Chiefs Centanni and Duralia, the PCPD has restructured. Duralia will oversee patrol and investigations, while Centanni will oversee administration. PCPD has a captain in place to oversee each division. Most of the command staff appeared at the meeting, along with other officers.
One purpose of the meeting was to, “….get out in the community and let you know that we are here for you,” said Chief Mills. “There are only 80 of us, and there are 41,000 of you. So, obviously, you are what makes it work. You are our eyes and ears, and the more you are engaged with us, the more we are going to be engaged with you. We are here for you. We are here to attend to your needs and wants, but we can’t do that without this communication that we have with one another.” If citizens were not comfortable asking questions in the open forum, Chief Mills offered to answer more questions after the meeting. “If you do have a question, please don’t let that question go unanswered before you walk out the door,” he said.
These meetings will be held on a Wednesday of every other month/six times per year. The chief would like to see more Plant Citians at the meetings. So, going forward, PCPD will vary times and locations to give people in the community with various schedules the opportunity to attend.
Officers working in the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), and also traffic enforcement stood and spoke about their operations to attendees.
One issue they addressed is there are approximately 180 homeless people living around Plant City. PCPD has resources such as shelter information, and vouchers to get their IDs to get jobs to help them. In many cases, homeless people set up hidden camps on empty properties. When they are removed trash is left behind. PCPD plans to hold a day, possibly in December, to go to a former homeless camp to clean it up. The CRA will cover the cost of cleaning up and disposal.
The CRA officers also work at outreach to the community. A tent and a table will pop up in various locations to give the officers a chance to listen to the community concerns. There will be a drop box for Plant Citians to give tips about problems they see.
Sgt. S. Carmack, Patrol Administrative Sergeant, informed the group that the PCPD has a substation at 513 S. Maryland Avenue. “If we are there, come in and talk to us,” he said. “If we are walking around, stop us and talk to us. We want to hear those things that involve, not only law enforcement, but you, and how it relates to law enforcement. We want to be that type of agency, and that type of team where you can confide in us…Everybody knows who is out running, doing certain things; who is driving crazy in the community; whose children might be a little destructive. Maybe we might be able to pay a little visit to let them know who we are, some of the programs we offer, and some of the things we might be able to do to help before we are coming to arrest somebody. We don’t want it to get that far. There are certain things we would like to get done, but we cannot get there without the community’s support. I don’t need to know your name in some cases, I just need to know what is going on, and for you to point me in the right direction. I will deal with things.”
In the open forum, one attendee voiced concerns for her downtown tenants when unknown individuals are trying to open doors. PCPD staff clarified it would be helpful for tenants to provide descriptions of the individuals, and that the tenant should contact PCPD directly at the time of any incident. Another citizen aired a situation in which he felt his issue wasn’t handled clearly and efficiently by PCPD dispatch, and the response time was too slow. After the meeting, PCPD officers spoke with the person to get more details with the intent to look into what happened, and make any needed improvements.
The next PCPD Community Meeting will be held October 16 at 6 p.m., at the Aurhur Boring Civic Center on the Florida Strawberry Festival grounds.