February, 2011

                        "We Are Hard At Work"

2011 will be a challenging year for all of us in public safety. We started the New Year with our Mid-Winter Training Conference and Exposition which was held in St. Augustine. I want to recognize Chief Richard Hedges and the St. Augustine Beach Police Department for their assistance with the conference, and express our gratitude to the members of the St. Augustine and Florida School for the Deaf and Blind Honor Guards assistance in making this another successful conference. The FPCA staff has worked very hard to ensure that we had a great training conference, and from all of the feedback that I received we did just that.

The hard work of our Association over the past years culminated with the appearance of all of the newly sworn-in members of the Florida cabinet. Governor Rick Scott attended our conference as well as Attorney General Pam Bondi; Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam; and also Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater. Each cabinet member addressed our membership and also had a face to face meeting with our Executive Board. Our message to them was straight forward; we are here to help deliver quality law enforcement to the citizens of the state and act as subject matter experts in the field. We stand ready to get to work. The meetings were very productive and enabled us to develop a dialogue with our new government executives.

The training committee is chaired by Chief David Romine, St. Pete Beach Police Department who worked very hard in providing outstanding training for this conference. The training committee will focus on delivering quality training at future conferences that our members have told us they would like to see. We conducted a survey of the membership in December and the results are guiding us to include speakers who will address the concerns of our members. The top rated topics for training are: funding and grants; leadership; legislation; problem employees; and best practices. The committee will be developing a summer training agenda that will focus more directly on these concerns.

We are also developing a Webinar Training series in cooperation with the Florida Center for Local Government Excellence. The training format is well received by others and is being used by the Florida City and County Management Assocation. Our members will be able to obtain high quality training from subject matter experts and ask questions during the live time portion of the Webinar. The training will be archived on our website for those who can not attend live time. This format will eliminate the great distances that many chiefs have to travel to obtain training, reduce expenses and deliver a high quality product. The Florida Center for Local Government Excellence has agreed to deliver the first Webinar at no cost to the Association and that training program is currently in development.

Our Legislative Agenda was ratified by the Legislative Committee and the Board of Directors. The details of our initiatives can be found on the FPCA website. Thanks for Chief Phil Thorne, Chief Jim Troiano and the Legislative Committee for all of their hard work. We plan to appear at the Capitol again this year and to walk the halls. We are conducting the sign up for times now and Chiefs are reminded that the Association will provide housing while you are at the Capitol. Our past efforts have been successful and were a large factor in making us an attractive destination for our cabinet members.

Our efforts to create a new Strategic Plan for the Association were guided by the expertise of Dr. Jim Sewall. I, Chief Paul Sireci, Chief Sam Williams and Chief Dennis Jones met in Tampa to develop a new mission statement, vision and strategic goals. The efforts were melded into a working document by Dr. Sewall and then massaged for several conference calls. The final result is a concise and clear Strategic Plan that will serve as a blueprint for our efforts going forward. The plan was approved by the Board of Directors and ratified by our membership at the business meeting. The new Strategic Plan can also be found on the FPCA website.

We are expecting two very significant matters to consume much of our time this coming legislative session. Two Ad Hoc committees have been created to address the matters and to monitor the initiatives as they mature during the legislative session this spring.

The first is the work of the Innocence Commission. We are dedicated to justice and committed to seeing that the innocent are not convicted of crime. At the same time, we must be certain that the victims of crime are served and that efforts to reform photo arrays, DNA and other evidentiary practices do not thwart justice by preventing the conviction of the guilty. Chief Jones of Tallahassee Police Department is spearheading our efforts by attending or having someone in attendance at all of the meetings of the Innocence Commission. Chief Phil Thorne and I have developed working relationships with the Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the Florida Public Defenders and FDLE to help create a workable photo array practice that can address the concerns expressed by the Innocence Commission. Once again, we are very fortunate to have the input and guidance of Attorney Michael Ramage of the FDLE as the drafts are created and amended by the various parties.

The second issue has just begun to rear its head, namely efforts to alter the Florida Retirement System. We have asked Chief Sam Williams of Ocala Police Department to spearhead an Ad Hoc committee to monitor this issue as bills are proposed and discussions ensue. A number of chiefs have volunteered to work with Chief Williams and we are lucky to have members with vast experience in the retirement arena. We will be monitoring bills and the efforts of other groups as the issue heats up. Our primary concern is the potential impact it will have on our ability to recruit and retain quality personnel if the retirement benefits are watered down or reduced to a point that it will no longer serve as an incentive for high performing candidates to engage is law enforcement as a career.

Our efforts over the past few years have served our Association well and have made us a flagship agency in law enforcement in Florida. We are proud of our efforts and progress and know that we are all better served. My thanks to all who have participated to make us so and know that we have a tremendous resource in our membership for all of our future needs.

Chief Peter Paulding