City council discusses police practices in Fort Myers

Fort Myers City Council met Monday and discussed the progress Fort Myers Police Department has made, while also talking about how it can continue to move forward for the betterment of the public.

People lined up outside city hall hoping to hear from city leaders and even say a few words themselves, but social distancing, of course, prohibited too many people from going inside.

Councilman Johnny Streets, a former FMPD officer, wanted to talk with Chief Derrick Diggs of Fort Myers Police Department about institutional racism, hiring practices among other issues. We learned Chief Diggs was logged in on Zoom and available for questions, but we never heard from him during the meeting.

Streets told us he wouldn’t be opposed to spending less money on firearms training for officers and more money on mental health training.

Streets hopes this will open up some changes down the road.

“How are officers doing? How are you looking into your discipline process? How are you looking at your hiring process?” Streets said. “We’re concerned about all of that. We need to discuss it, so that the citizens know where we are. And that we are receptive to the changes that need to be made.”

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