Reo Hatfield rejected for Fort Myers Police Chief

Author: AMY GALO Writer: Paul Dolan, Rachel Murphy
Published: Updated:
Fort Myers city council CREDIT WINK News

Reo Hatfield was rejected in a 4-to-3 vote to be the next Fort Myers Police Chief during Tuesday’s meeting with the city manager.

“I don’t know how you got to choosing someone that you didn’t choose from the beginning to the top of the list?” Councilperson Terolyn Watson said.

“Of the candidates, he was fourth on my list. I’ll leave it at that,” Councilperson Darla Bonks said.

Hatfield was one of four finalists in the running for police chief. The finalists included two high-ranking Fort Myers police officers, Acting Major Jason Fields and Captain Victor Medico. The other two are outside candidates Gina Hawkins, a retired police chief from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and deputy chief Reo Hatfield from Virginia Beach.

WINK News asked Bonk if she was OK sharing her choice for chief.

“Um, no, I’m not comfortable, and I don’t think that would be fair to the city manager in that regard. We gave him a pretty tough night,” Bonk said.

Three of the four council members that voted against Hatfield wanted someone with police chief experience. Only one finalist, Gina Hawkins, matches that description.

“We said, we said that we wanted a candidate, the best we could find that had police chief experience,” said Councilperson Johnny Streets.

Four council members voted against Hatfield, leaving the city manager’s appointment null and void.

“I think we did a very big disservice to the city manager and the city here this evening,” Mayor Kevin Anderson said.

“I’m stopping by to tell you that I think that what is happening has been a disservice to the people of the city of Fort Myers,” Streets said.

The city manager will get an opportunity next month to appoint another chief and seek confirmation again. Mayor Anderson did not seem too optimistic about that.

“I can see the same thing happening on each candidate, a split vote, and no confirmation,” Anderson said.

Bonk disagrees.

“I think the local FMPD does a phenomenal job. We’ve got great leaders in place, so it’s not like the city’s gonna fall apart for one more month,” Bonk said.

The city has yet to announce when the new appointee will be brought forward. It’s likely the next candidate will be brought forth in July.

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