Collier County law enforcement prepared to keep voters safe on Election Day

Southwest Florida law enforcement is working to keep voters safe when they show up to cast their ballots and in the days following the election.

We spoke to Collier County Sheriff’s Office about how deputies have prepared for any possibility from the polls to every inch of Collier County on Election Day.

“We have comprehensive plans on locations, the potential for event, the potential impacts before and after,” Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said.

Rambosk said he and his team are prepared to go 24/7 when the polls open. But the planning began long ago. It all started with social media.

“We’ve been monitoring that for months,” Undersheriff Jim Bloom said.

A group of deputies have been trained as first responders to any incidents or call outs to the polling sites. They get backed up as needed.

“Aviation, drones, field force, we have up and to over 300 members have been trained, civil unrest training specifically recently,” Bloom said. “We have every polling site GEO fenced, so if a call comes in from there, we will actually be notified immediately in here.”

Plans cover every eventuality.

“The sky is the limit during this because we aren’t quite sure what’s going on across the country,” Bloom said. “We may be impacted here. We have no intelligence at this point that Southwest Florida is going to have any type of major situation.”

But they’re ready. Naples Police Department’s chief calls this election unprecedented.

We’re prepared for it, and we’ve taken precautions, which I’ve never thought we’d have to do in the past,” Police Chief Tom Weschler said. but I’ve never seen anything like this.

Law enforcement will be on the move Tuesday, visiting various polling locations. They will respond to all calls for problems, and, they’ll also hand out cards with information on how to report voter fraud.