Naples facing safety concerns amid police officer shortage

Leaders and neighbors are sounding the alarm over safety in Naples because of a short-staffed police department. Especially as more visitors come into town during the winter season.

Naples Police Chief Tom Weschler told WINK News they’ve been hit all at once by a combination of things including retirements and officers out on disability. One of their officers was even killed in a car crash.

But there is another reason making it hard to hire new officers, pay and benefits are just not competitive enough.

Safety is a cornerstone of life in Naples. Naples resident Rose Deveson said, “I look to live in a safe community. I look to be safe.”

Greg and Rose Deveson travel to Naples from Michigan in the winter. Greg said, “getting here knowing it’s a safe community is hugely important to us.”

But there’s concern that Naples’ safe reputation is faltering while there are fewer officers are out on the streets.

The police chief says they have 11 vacancies. The union claims it’s 14.

5th Avenue South Executive Director Bruce Barone sent a letter to Naples City Council that said in part, “we have serious concerns about how this issue might affect the safety and security for not only our 220+ businesses, but how it will affect the quality of life of the residents and tourists who visit 5th Avenue.”

The Naples police union says it is tough to hire or retain officers because the pay is low, and they are losing people to other local law enforcement agencies.

Jesse Granese, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 38 said, “I can tell you for myself personally with my experience I will be looking elsewhere as well I put an application out to other agencies. Morale is very low actually and this is a large part of it. We have seen a large increase in some crimes there’s just not enough officers around to take care of some of the issues.”

Naples Police Chief Weschler is adamant that Naples remains safe. “We have a traffic unit we have temporarily got rid of that and I really don’t want to go into specifics on some of the other areas we’ve kind of cut back but it has caused us to cut back on some of the specialty units, but the street is safe we have officers out there every day.”

Weschler says they are actively hiring.

Meanwhile, union leaders are negotiating salary and benefits with the city on Thursday.

They are optimistic higher wages could solve the problem.