City Council Members

This letter is a plea to the members of City Council concerning the growing and seemingly endless problems at the Zephyrhills Police Department. I am not a crap starter or former disgruntled employee but rather an informed and concerned city resident who is asking for you to step up and take a look at what's going on with my/your Police Department. I understand and respect your civic committment you have volunteered to serve and right now a focus needs to be on the Police Department. The mission the Police Officers are tasked with (Police work) is being over shadowed by an administration which is out of control and getting worse. The City Manager and City Council helped create this monster and needs to help fix it. By allowing the changing of the Departments S.O.P. to allow for a Chief to be hired with only a G.E.D. and then have that Chief stand in front of the Council and tell them when asked, no I am not interested or pursuing my education ( I was there I heard it), that's a red flag and a little foreshadowing. Has the Chief or any of his command staff been to a Supervisors/Management training? If so I would get the City's money back. What accomplishments can the Chief make about how he has bettered the Department? I don't mean new cars because that is hardly an accomplishment. The Chief has an out-of-control Patrol Captain who has proven he will skirt policy, procedure and show dishonesty to further his agenda. There was nothing right or proper on how he was able to come back to conduct an Internal Investigation as an Officer then be picked as the next Captain. Are you kidding me? The City Council and Manager has created a Captain who believes he is untouchable along with being malicious. Believe me when I say he is running this department, or so he thinks and as long as the Council turns a blind eye, things will get worse. What has to happen for you to look into these things? More media attention? FDLE investigation? Lets try and get ahead of this thing. Mandate your Police Admin to get educated on how to run a forward-thinking, progressive agency that Officers want to come to work without fear of retalliation for supporting a union, not being part of the "In Crowd" for the day etc... This is for real and this agency is about to explode due to the stress and anxiety of unfair labor practices, lack of consistency, seniority issues and dishonest dealings (which by the way should be logged in HR.) Please help our Department as you have the ability to do so.

OMG you're kidding, the Chief only has a GED???? I didn't know that. Well, that explains a lot. You've got to be kidding, really only a GED?

Yes only a G.E.D. and the policy was changed for him so he could be appointed. Chief Shears is a good guy and a great Road Sergeant to work for but he is in over his head. Was he the best choice for a Chief's position, I think not. He's put his cronie in and that will be his downfall. You don't have to look 18 years back to see the Capts. indiscretions, just take a look at the last two years, there is enough there to see what he is about and what his agenda is.

No wonder this city has so many problems. You have a leader in place that probably has the lowest education in the department. How did that happen? Good guy or not, his degree is still just a GED and that's not enough to run a police department.

Oh brother, Here we go again. One guy answering his own posts.

mean and nasty throwing mud at whatever you can. tsk tsk.

It's not one guy. Experience never takes the place of education. Your Chief NEEDS to have more then a GED - that's a joke. One could sleep through high school and get a diploma.

How utterly ridicuolous for an individual to continuously try to cause such havoc in a dept.
This person needs to be exposed and dealt with.The city council has a city to run. The manager has business to conduct. The police dept needs their morale bolstered in order to protect us.What a nasty and unhappy individual this person is.
No one runs a dept, city and or business by himself. There is always a system of checks and balances in place to govern.The chief was the citys choice so he must have been qualified.I understand he has worked for the city for many years so they must have known his educational level.
The life experiences one has overcome is oft times better than a degree.

How utterly ridicuolous for an individual to continuously try to cause such havoc in a dept.
This person needs to be exposed and dealt with.The city council has a city to run. The manager has business to conduct. The police dept needs their morale bolstered in order to protect us.What a nasty and unhappy individual this person is.
No one runs a dept, city and or business by himself. There is always a system of checks and balances in place to govern.The chief was the citys choice so he must have been qualified.I understand he has worked for the city for many years so they must have known his educational level.
The life experiences one has overcome is oft times better than a degree.

Again, this is not just one person as you seem to think you know it all. Nor am I an officer of this department, I am a citizen of this community.

The city council is there to listen to its citizens and their concerns. That is their job, that is how a city is ran. This is my city and I have input into what happens here, that's my right as a citizen.

There is no system of checks and balances because if there was, none of this nonsense would have happened in the first place and this includes the current and prior administrations.

His education level I'm sorry is a joke. His experience may be great, but you don't hire someone with his education level to run a department. He may be a great guy, but he has to get some education under his belt. He was asked about obtaining a further degree and refused to do so. If he was attending school and working as a Chief the comments wouldn't be so harsh, but he has no desire to do so. That is his choice, but please don't sit there and think that we should just sweep his GED under the rug because he's a great guy and that alone makes him qualified to do the job. What is this teaching the children of this community? Drop out of high school and get a GED and you someday may be able to run a department? Not even reasonable. He should be kissing the ground and on his hands and knees everyday thanking the Lord that he got this opportunity because normally people like that NEVER get the opportunity to do this and he should want better for himself and his department and further his education because he was damn lucky to get it in the first place.

How can he send his officers to training when he himself doesn't want to further his own education? How does that work? How does he command a staff that has 4 year degrees and tell them what to do when he himself doesn't even have a high school diploma?

Well written and well put. The Chief of Police is an administrative post that is in charge of overseeing and managing not only the department but the staff under him and he is not qualified to do either. Just take a look at the morale and the stagnant way of doing business. "Well this is the way it's always been done so this is how it will continue to be done." Times are changing and so should the mission of the Department. Oh yes we have it spelled out in a memo but in practice, it's not being done. ( I have read the mission statement)

It is part of the City Council and Managers responsibility to it's citizens to hear, not just listen to the concerns and complaints and to take action. The level of Police service is being affected by the hypocratic administrative management style. Such as the current Chief commented all the time about the former Chief conducting traffic stops but how many times has the current Chief conducted traffic stops recently? That is just one example of many that shows the mentality of the administration. Let Patrol do Patrol work, let your Sergeants supervise and manage their Officers, let Detectives do Detective work and you (Administration) supervise it all, not micro manage like you do. You have have good staff who will stand behind an honorable and honest admin but seeing how the depts. retention problem has been over the past few years, maybe you need to take a look at why and how to fix that. Training is needed from the top down so posts like this wont/can't pop up.

Mission Statement


We, the members of the Zephyrhills Police Department, are dedicated to working cooperatively with the public and recognize our responsibility to provide our community responsive and professional police service to protect the lives and property or our citizens and other non-law enforcement services, all of which must enhance and enrich the quality of life for the total community.

Key word is professional. What is happening at this department is as far as professional as you can get.

"He should be kissing the ground and on his hands and knees everyday thanking the Lord that he got this opportunity" He turned his back on the former ofc. who put him in charge but promoted an unethical officer to a Captain's position??? What he does'nt realize is that his Captain's goal is to get rid of him and be the Chief!! He denied the one he should have helped and the one he did will stab him in the back!!! "Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the **** crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." Matthew 26:34