Cape Coral assigns more resource officers on school campus

Following the shooting massacre at Stoneman Douglas last February, Florida made a law requiring schools to have more police presence on school campuses at all times.

Cape Coral schools are among the many to do so, by moving 22 police officers from the police station, on to school campuses.

But with moving police from station to school, puts a strain on the department, in terms of being understaffed.

“We are currently serving the largest population of citizens in the city of Cape Coral that we have ever served in the history of the Cape Coral Police Department. Yet we are not at the highest level of staffing that the police department has ever been in its history,” said Lieutenant Dana Coston of the Cape’s Community Service Bureau.

Despite the strain on law enforcement, Coston says it isn’t taking away from the 9-1-1 response efforts.

“What this is going to mean temporarily is that our investigators are going to have a higher caseload, so we are going to have to pay in terms of time and attention to a case, you’re going to have to pay a little bit in that respect,” Coston said.

But all this is a small price to pay for kids to be safe while attending school says Coston.

“Everyone’s had to tighten their belts a little bit to help make this happen, but everyone’s stepped up to the plate and we’re getting it done.”