Ocoee Police Say 20-Percent Of Officers Have Applied For Deputy Jobs

20% I think the Ocoee Police need to make some changes. No wonder Pine Hills is creeping into Ocoee. Better start hiring Mayor. The Orange County Sheriff Offfice has it's own problems and can't spare a hundred officers to clean up Ocoee's mess. Anyone know why so many Cops are leaving all of a sudden? Channel 9 needs to dig a little deeper and get to the bottom of all this. Lord knows the "Good Old Boys" won't. Well the good news is we don't have to worry about getting speeding tickets in Ocoee anymore. Just about getting robbed at the West Oaks Mall aka Pine Hills Mall.

Did the chief get fired? I haven't heard anything about it since...

I say they fire the chief and distribute his salary in the form of raises and benifits so cops don't leave their beats. Got to be at least $100K right?

This feds need to investigate the Ocoee police dept.

I don't think there is corruption, just a bad HR divsion.

CrimeFinder wrote:

I don't think there is corruption, just a bad HR divsion.

You are correct. I just looked at the news video. That Jim is a joke! I am glad he is not on my side.

Apparently, the director of personell is Mr. Jim Carnicella and it just so happends that the chief is from the same area. Hmmmm. You think Mr. Carnicella owes him a favor or something? Maybe the feds do need to get involved. You were right. WFTV has been pretty quiet since this story broke, maybe they are going to follow-up with something big. Google Reffett and there are some interesting stories about his past...

Hire more cops Ocoee! Not the corrupt type if possible. As a community, why are we letting the city gov't run it into the ground? More cops means safer neighborhoods! This area has become a breeding ground for crime. I don't like taxes any more than the next person but what are we supposed to do? Even if I did want to move, no one would want to buy my house. Fix it Mayorscott.

MomSquared wrote:

Hire more cops Ocoee! Not the corrupt type if possible. As a community, why are we letting the city gov't run it into the ground? More cops means safer neighborhoods! This area has become a breeding ground for crime. I don't like taxes any more than the next person but what are we supposed to do? Even if I did want to move, no one would want to buy my house. Fix it Mayorscott.

Well, I did a little investigating on my own and found a FDLE report online that shows how many officers work at the Police Department. It shows 67. 20% of 67 is 14 officers. That leaves 53 officers for a city with 35,000 residents. FDLE uses an officer-to-citizen ratio formula (Cops/1,000 Residents). That puts Ocoee at 1.5 cops for every 1,000 residents. In comparison here is how surrounding cities rate:
OPD-3.51
Winter Garden-1.96 (not to good either)
Windermere-4.16
Winter Park-3.08
Oakland-4.08
Maitland-2.91
Eatonville-5.9!

http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/cjst/cjap/2007/ra...

It is a combination of problems. The HR manager, one commissioner and one asst. fire chief. The City Manager is very professional. Why he lets these people get away with such stupidity and antics is anyones guess. Yes there is a build-up of administrators who have previous ties, but thats normal. The HR manager is not. Watch the video. Classic guilty and nervous behavior. Looking down, away, all the classic signs of guilt, nerves and all the no no's a professional HR manager normally is familiar with!

Wow. Read this story. One day earlier!
http://www.wftv.com/news/16065225/detail.html

Someone needs to get the click out. Its a Seminole-Broward gang: HR mangr, City Mangr, Asst City Mngr, Police Chief, Parks Mngr, Public Serv manager, Community devlpmnt mangr. Wow. How ridiculous. Anyone checked to see if the commisssioners have health insurance or retirement. Usually the root of all evil.

Funny you mention, the Commission voted themselves a LIFETIME retirement benefit without contributing a dime to the pension out of their pocket. The Mayor & Commissioner Rusty Johnson will pocket at least $500. plus a month because they have been 20 yrs.
Funny thing is nobody knew about it unless the got the west orange times. Who suggested this great idea in a middle of a recession? The City Manager that they hired.
These "public servants" have figured out how to run government in the way the Orange County Public
School runs it, just show up and vote yes on any "Staff" recommendation.
When questioned during city meetings the answers are wrong, evasive and citizens wishes are ignored.
http://www.thetaxcollector.org

Note: The esteemed ego maniac mayor of Ocoee states that he's not worried because Ocoee has mutual aid agreements with other agencies. TAKE NOTE PEOPLE - HE DOES NOT HAVE EVEN A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THAT MEANS! Orange County, Winter Garden or whatever other agencie is NOT going to be patrolling your neighborhood or answering your calls! These agreements are for emergency purposes and NOT to fill in for missing officers due to the fact that Ocoee can't govern itself with crooks, ego-maniacs and idiot good old boys running the town.

Well you have it right people. Those poor officers lose more and more benefits each month and work for a department who don't care about their families. The City is withholding leave time for officers who are leaving before their ridiculous contracts expire. That is theft. The City needs to follow the law and go to court like the rest of America to recoup their "training money".
That place is dirty.