Sheriff Scott reports on job to chamber
Sheriff Mike Scott reported on services provided and enforcement during an overview of the inner workings of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at the Greater Fort Myers Beach Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Veterans Day (Thursday) at Skye’s Mexican Restaurant in Santini Marina Plaza.
The third-generation Lee County native reminisced about spending summers on the Beach while his father was a builder on the island – most notably at Pink Shell Resort.
“I have a lot of fond memories of the beach. It’s always nice to come back and visit,” said Scott.
Scott, who is in his second term as county sheriff, reviewed components of his office before answering questions. He spoke about the jail system and the patrol operations before discussing domestic violence, theft, public schools and the police budget in Lee County.
“We have to feed 2,000 people (in the jail system) three meals a day and adhere to their religious beliefs (during that process),” said Scott. “They also need medical attention. So, this is a huge undertaking for us. It is half of our operation.
“On the other side of our operation is the patrol side that you see on television and know about. As we approach the end of this year, we hovering right at 500,000 calls for service. So, we have some serious dumb masses in Lee County court.”
Scott gave a shout out to his patrolmen by presenting a baseball analogy with him as coach and his men and women as the players.
“I don’t care who the coach in the dugout is. We care about the players on the field – the Matt Powells and Matt LeClairs of the world,” he said. “I speak for the team, but it’s about the other 1,584 men and women that are your sheriff’s office. That’s who I am privileged to work with.”
Scott said he seeing a trend in domestic violence and theft due to the relation to the economy. He referred to theft as “crimes of opportunity.”
“It’s difficult in any relationship with the day in and day out stuff that happens. Imagine the added frustrations when your car is being repossessed in the driveway or the light bill may or may not be paid,” he said. “Then there’s theft, which is dumb masses of people taking things that don’t belong to them. Someone who puts steaks in their purse is not a person that’s stealing to get rich quick. That’s a person who’s stealing to feed. We have that.”
The 1981 North Fort Myers graduate, husband and father of two daughters summarized on school safety (82,000 students in the public school system/ “Police officers should be in the schools”); budget cycle (“I consider the last cycle to be a huge success”); and overall community overlook (200 grow houses closed recently).
“We don’t drive around and see graffiti on every building, because we are very aggressive in the schools by developing information on possible gang activity and dealing with it,” said Scott. “But there is always work to be done. We stay focused and committed to that.”
Scott was selected as the commencement speaker at The FBI Academy on June 18.
“Bar none, that was the highest professional source of pride for me,” he said. “Less than one percent of law enforcement officers in the world even go to the FBI academy.”
Scott fielded questions pertaining to traffic lights; texting and driving; the Federal government suing Arizona over immigration laws; and synthetic marijuana. He ended his time with a tough realization.
“Narco-terrorism (dopers and terrorists) is a big deal right now. I don’t want to paint doom and gloom, but we have to get lucky every time. They have to get lucky just once,” he said.