Originally Posted by 2006FLORIDA
Dear "guest(#1,974,971)",
As a three year officer in North Port I don't know everything. What I have come to know as an absolute is that my 2nd and 3rd in command are and were more than capable of coordinating the efforts of this heinous crime. There have been many people that criticize Chief Lewis for not immediately skydiving into the crime scene and assuming command. The Captains and Lieutenants conducted the investigation into this incident in a proficient and all-encompassing manner. During the initial coordination there was no stone left unturned and procedure was followed by the book when it had to be, and circumvented when a situation called for an audible. I am 100% positive that the Chief would have performed his duties exactly how the initial commanding officer did. Why he is criticized for not immediately dropping what he was doing is beyond me. Here at North Port, unlike many other agencies, there is a level of trust between co-workers, supervisors, and supervisor-subordinates, that I have rarely seen elsewhere. I believe that this trust has been developed between each other from working calls with one another, supervisors watching (not monitoring) how road patrol handle the tasks and investigations presented before them, and overall from the general day-day contact with one another. The basis for the initial level of trust in each other begins during the selection and hiring process. My agency has a stringent hiring and FTO program that 95% of the time has isolated potentially problematic individuals and declined to hire them. The other 5% are normally identified and let go within the first 2 years of their employment. I have never imagined working for an agency that has an immensely high level of esprit de corps. There is not 1 supervisor or fellow officer that I work with that causes me to question their decision making and performance capability. In this sense, for whatever reason Chief Lewis had for not immediately returning to North Port, comes down to the simple fact that he trusts his guys/gals to perform their duties to their fullest extent, and rightfully so. This "family" trusts one another. And I know that I can speak for all of us when I say the effort put into this investigation by all was 110%. I have waited to reply to this ridiculous topic so that I could fully look into the duties and efforts contributed by all, and can safely say with a clear conscience through review of the facts at hand, that this terrible crime has been investigated in the most proficient way that it could have been performed(NPPD's Road Patrol, CIB, Admin, involvement). Chief Lewis is an excellent and admirable leader and I would follow by his side into a hazardous and seemingly deadly situation with the confidence that if there is a way to come out on top, he would find it.