Wednesday night we showed you where almost half of the accidents on our interstate are happening. We also showed you that this area is where the Florida Highway Patrol seldom works. Tonight we are going further, showing you where in that crash corridor (from Naples to North Fort Myers) you are most likely to crash. It's information that could save your life. It's information the Florida Highway patrol is taking a closer look at and making changes.
The changes troopers are making are temporary... but it is my hope that down the road they will make them more permanent.
When we asked Major David McCarter why they are not working the 50 miles between Naples and Fort Myers aggressively he said "because that area is congested", and that "they are busy answering calls." His office did provide documentation that shows troopers are busy. I don't argue that troopers are not doing their job. My personal opinion is they do an excellent job.
However, they are the ones tasked with enforcement on the interstate... so they can't give an excuse for ignoring a 50 mile stretch of interstate. Simply put, if they are not there... who is? I have spoken with numorous people who have said they rarely, if ever, see a trooper between Fort Myers and Naples. The drivers have taken notice... and are driving accordingly.
Some could argue there are so many cars on the interstate that enforcement would be ineffective.
But this operation done on the interstate proves otherwise. In a single day troopers saturated the entire interstate. Calls to FHP for aggressive/reckless drivers dropped 66%. Doesn't that sound nice?
It's clear FHP needs more troopers/money to adequetely cover Southwest Florida, especially the interstate. As it stands right now... they have become more of a reactive agency then a proactive one. If you need a reason for that to change... watch tonight at six.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Closing the Enforcement Gap
Tonight's investigation addresses Southwest Florida's busiest road... and the agency tasked with enforcement on it. When you drive Interstate 75 in Southwest Florida, how often do you see a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper? The answers among drivers will likely vary. But where you see troopers (or don't see them) will not vary.
Our story is the culmination of a six month investigation that we just happen to stumble upon this Summer. It began as a simple inquiry into tickets written by Florida Highway patrol troopers. We wanted to know where they we're writing tickets for accidents on the interstate. The idea is we could map out where these accident tickets where being written and we could show you where the accident prone areas are.
As we combed over the tickets (roughly a few thousand) trends started emerging. We found specific mile markers where troopers wrote dozens of tickets for crashes. We also found extremes: mile markers where trooper hardly wrote tickets. And mile markers where trooper's hands we're likely cramping as they signed off on thousands of citations. (that's a joke)
When mapped out it became clear there are areas that are crash corridors... areas where you're most likely to get a ticket... and areas where you seldom will see a trooper. But we didn't have the complete picture. We had just a 10 week snapshot of the interstate in Lee County. So we expanded our investigation, analyzing 6 months of tickets written in Collier, Lee, and Charlotte county. That works out to a little over 20,000 interstate tickets... all counted and tabulated by hand.
The end result: We have the clearest picture a reporter has ever had on enforcement and crashes on the interstate in Southwest Florida. It's also the clearest picture FHP has had on where they are spending their time... and they are making changes.
As a reporter and a resident of Southwest Florida I know how overwhelmed our Interstate is. It's my hope this investigation will help FHP and perhaps other local agencies in curbing the crash corridors that have developed.
Our story is the culmination of a six month investigation that we just happen to stumble upon this Summer. It began as a simple inquiry into tickets written by Florida Highway patrol troopers. We wanted to know where they we're writing tickets for accidents on the interstate. The idea is we could map out where these accident tickets where being written and we could show you where the accident prone areas are.
As we combed over the tickets (roughly a few thousand) trends started emerging. We found specific mile markers where troopers wrote dozens of tickets for crashes. We also found extremes: mile markers where trooper hardly wrote tickets. And mile markers where trooper's hands we're likely cramping as they signed off on thousands of citations. (that's a joke)
When mapped out it became clear there are areas that are crash corridors... areas where you're most likely to get a ticket... and areas where you seldom will see a trooper. But we didn't have the complete picture. We had just a 10 week snapshot of the interstate in Lee County. So we expanded our investigation, analyzing 6 months of tickets written in Collier, Lee, and Charlotte county. That works out to a little over 20,000 interstate tickets... all counted and tabulated by hand.
The end result: We have the clearest picture a reporter has ever had on enforcement and crashes on the interstate in Southwest Florida. It's also the clearest picture FHP has had on where they are spending their time... and they are making changes.
As a reporter and a resident of Southwest Florida I know how overwhelmed our Interstate is. It's my hope this investigation will help FHP and perhaps other local agencies in curbing the crash corridors that have developed.
Monday, February 19, 2007
How safe are our schools?
Decades ago the question of school safety was an afterthought in Florida. Our schools were built to be open, friendly, inviting places to learn. That all changed when Columbine and host of other highly publicized school shootings took place.
In recent years our schools have undergone security scrutiny. Deputies have been assigned to patrol schools and develop relationships with students. The hope is these relationships will catch school violence before it erupts. Legislators passed the Jessica Lunsford Act to force schools to document all visitors... ensuring no sexual predator/offender makes it on campus. Many schools have also enacted locked door systems, where you can only access the school through one door - the front door.
So is it all working? If you walked on campus today, a complete stranger, would someone stop you? Would the school check your ID to see if you're a sexual offender? These are the questions we asked of Collier, Lee and Charlotte county school districts. Tonight at six we will show you what our team of investigators found when we tested all three districts. Some will do great. Some will do poorly. And all three districts will take home an important lesson in basic school security.
In recent years our schools have undergone security scrutiny. Deputies have been assigned to patrol schools and develop relationships with students. The hope is these relationships will catch school violence before it erupts. Legislators passed the Jessica Lunsford Act to force schools to document all visitors... ensuring no sexual predator/offender makes it on campus. Many schools have also enacted locked door systems, where you can only access the school through one door - the front door.
So is it all working? If you walked on campus today, a complete stranger, would someone stop you? Would the school check your ID to see if you're a sexual offender? These are the questions we asked of Collier, Lee and Charlotte county school districts. Tonight at six we will show you what our team of investigators found when we tested all three districts. Some will do great. Some will do poorly. And all three districts will take home an important lesson in basic school security.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Scraping the Bottom?
I know this is a bit off topic, especially for this blog, but tonight's story affects us all in one way or another. Tonight we are going in depth about our real estate market.
When I first arrived in Southwest Florida (2002) our market was hot! Almost everywhere I turned we were reporting about growth, condos rising downtown, middle of nowhere lots in Lehigh tripling value, and homes in Cape Coral increasing by tens of thousand of dollars a month. We had to know this couldn't go on forever... and yet I even bought into it!
Today the market is the opposite. There is record inventory and in many places you couldn't sell your home if you wanted. Instead of increasing by tens of thousands, home values are dropping each month. Realtors will tell you this price correction was coming... that we're paying for our inflated mistakes of the past.
Some people have said "there are no buyers." That's not entirely true. What has happened is the investors have left residential real estate and moved onto commercial real estate (which is extremely hot right now). Homes are still selling in Southwest Florida... at a 2002 pace. The problem is all these investors (myself included) jumped on the real estate gravy train... we created an unrealistic buildup on inventory. Unloading this record inventory is going to take awhile to do.
Developers understand this and are slowing down their residential construction to do their part. After all, the longer it takes to unload the homes currently on the market... the more the price of a home in Southwest Florida is going to drop. The lower the price of a home, the lower the profit for the builder/seller.
So when will it turn around? When will we be "scraping the bottom" of the market? There are mixed answers to this. One expert estimated we have about two years of inventory built up right now. Meaning if we didn't build any more houses and no one else decided to sell their home, it would take two years to unload all this inventory. So two years. But wait, then there are economists saying the our economy is strong and everything is in place right now for a buying splurge. Economist believe that buyers are waiting/holding off for some signal that the bottom has arrived.
During our investigation I received plenty of advice... here's what I took away:
If you're an end user (a buyer who plans to live in a home) you can't lose right now. You should consider this purchase a commitment to live in a home for 5-10 years. You're home will appreciate... you will make money.
If you're not an end user, stay out. The days of buying and flipping in 30 days are gone. (unless you're going to flip foreclosures... but even that isn't guaranteed)
If you're a seller who's living in their home and you don't need to move... get your house off the market. Selling on a declining market is just plain dumb. Unless you absolutely need out, you should wait this decline out. People are still moving to Florida, the economy is strong... and this market will change, again. Tomorrow may be worse... but can you really say next year will be?
Broker Denny Grimes said it best: Think of the bottom of the market as a window of time... not a point. If you wait for the bottom you will miss it... much like those investors who waited a day too late to unload their property.
When I first arrived in Southwest Florida (2002) our market was hot! Almost everywhere I turned we were reporting about growth, condos rising downtown, middle of nowhere lots in Lehigh tripling value, and homes in Cape Coral increasing by tens of thousand of dollars a month. We had to know this couldn't go on forever... and yet I even bought into it!
Today the market is the opposite. There is record inventory and in many places you couldn't sell your home if you wanted. Instead of increasing by tens of thousands, home values are dropping each month. Realtors will tell you this price correction was coming... that we're paying for our inflated mistakes of the past.
Some people have said "there are no buyers." That's not entirely true. What has happened is the investors have left residential real estate and moved onto commercial real estate (which is extremely hot right now). Homes are still selling in Southwest Florida... at a 2002 pace. The problem is all these investors (myself included) jumped on the real estate gravy train... we created an unrealistic buildup on inventory. Unloading this record inventory is going to take awhile to do.
Developers understand this and are slowing down their residential construction to do their part. After all, the longer it takes to unload the homes currently on the market... the more the price of a home in Southwest Florida is going to drop. The lower the price of a home, the lower the profit for the builder/seller.
So when will it turn around? When will we be "scraping the bottom" of the market? There are mixed answers to this. One expert estimated we have about two years of inventory built up right now. Meaning if we didn't build any more houses and no one else decided to sell their home, it would take two years to unload all this inventory. So two years. But wait, then there are economists saying the our economy is strong and everything is in place right now for a buying splurge. Economist believe that buyers are waiting/holding off for some signal that the bottom has arrived.
During our investigation I received plenty of advice... here's what I took away:
If you're an end user (a buyer who plans to live in a home) you can't lose right now. You should consider this purchase a commitment to live in a home for 5-10 years. You're home will appreciate... you will make money.
If you're not an end user, stay out. The days of buying and flipping in 30 days are gone. (unless you're going to flip foreclosures... but even that isn't guaranteed)
If you're a seller who's living in their home and you don't need to move... get your house off the market. Selling on a declining market is just plain dumb. Unless you absolutely need out, you should wait this decline out. People are still moving to Florida, the economy is strong... and this market will change, again. Tomorrow may be worse... but can you really say next year will be?
Broker Denny Grimes said it best: Think of the bottom of the market as a window of time... not a point. If you wait for the bottom you will miss it... much like those investors who waited a day too late to unload their property.
Monday, February 05, 2007
A Sexual Threat?
On any given day of the week you can turn the TV on and hear something about a sexual offender/predator on the news. In the last decade.. we've created sex offender registries, laws to keep offenders out of neighborhoods, moved bus stops, and beefed up our sex offender units in law enforcement. Society and the media has become obsessed with the sexual offender because they threaten our most precious possession... our children.
But is the threat real? Are the 900 registered sexual offenders living in Southwest Florida really preying on our children? For our story tonight we looked at the hundreds of sexual offenses that happened in 2006. In Lee and Charlotte county you could count on one hand those that involved a registered sexual offender. Collier didn't have the numbers available. We came to learn from the detectives who deal with the registry... the sexual offender is one of the last people to re-offend. Yes, part of this has to do with the fact law enforcement is keeping tabs on offenders... keeping them from preying on new/old victims.
Detectives pointed out a number of reasons sex offenders don't re-offend. The biggest reason: a lot of people on this registry shouldn't be there. There are cases where offenders are now married to their victim, even had children with them... yet that person will be listed on the registry for the next 25 years. Some cases involve a high school senior who had sex with a sophomore. That may have been no big deal when you were in school but the law takes a hard line now when 17 and 15 year olds have sex. I'm not condoning this kind of activity... but does that 17 year old really need to be on the registry for the next 30 years? Do we really need to warn our children about this person and treat them like a sexual deviant?
I realize and understand why the sexual offender gets little sympathy from society. But you have to wonder how many are out there being victimized by this registry. In speaking with a number of people on the list... we learned that being a registered offender makes it hard to find a job, a place to live, a break. Lets face it, that is exactly what society intended this list to do. We don't want a monster that preys on little boys and girls living next door to us or delivering our pizza. However for the aforementioned offenders who shouldn't necessarily be on this list... what is happening to them? They can't get good paying jobs. They can't live in a "nice" community. They can't move up or be a "pillar" of society. And for many of them... they end up becoming a victim of the registry... turning to a life of short lived crime. I say short lived because we have devoted our sex offender detectives to track them... and it's just a matter of time before they are caught screwing up. We of course applaud law enforcement for doing this job... because we're getting the "perverts" off the street.
If you're thinking about getting into law enforcement, specifically sex crimes, I would say you have job security. The list of sexual offenders is growing everyday. We continue to funnel any and all sex crimes into the registry. While other states have passed laws to protect the consenting teenagers from becoming a victim of this list... Florida has yet to take this step. You won't find a politician willing to propose such a change in the registry because it would be political suicide. As I said earlier... no one has sympathy for the sexual offender.
Of the hundreds of sex cases our police and sheriff's department are handling... roughly 99% involve new "offenders". That means the greatest threat to our children, ironically, are those not listed on the sex offender/predator website. That's scary.
I agree we must do our best to protect our children. That means the registry should include those who are a real threat to society... not everyone who committed a sex crime. How do you decide who's a real threat though?
Have you ever wondered why we don't have a public registry for convicted murderers? Take a look at this study on recidivism done by the State of Washington. I would be curious to see this study done in Florida.
http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/06-03-1201.pdf
http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/05-12-1202.pdf
But is the threat real? Are the 900 registered sexual offenders living in Southwest Florida really preying on our children? For our story tonight we looked at the hundreds of sexual offenses that happened in 2006. In Lee and Charlotte county you could count on one hand those that involved a registered sexual offender. Collier didn't have the numbers available. We came to learn from the detectives who deal with the registry... the sexual offender is one of the last people to re-offend. Yes, part of this has to do with the fact law enforcement is keeping tabs on offenders... keeping them from preying on new/old victims.
Detectives pointed out a number of reasons sex offenders don't re-offend. The biggest reason: a lot of people on this registry shouldn't be there. There are cases where offenders are now married to their victim, even had children with them... yet that person will be listed on the registry for the next 25 years. Some cases involve a high school senior who had sex with a sophomore. That may have been no big deal when you were in school but the law takes a hard line now when 17 and 15 year olds have sex. I'm not condoning this kind of activity... but does that 17 year old really need to be on the registry for the next 30 years? Do we really need to warn our children about this person and treat them like a sexual deviant?
I realize and understand why the sexual offender gets little sympathy from society. But you have to wonder how many are out there being victimized by this registry. In speaking with a number of people on the list... we learned that being a registered offender makes it hard to find a job, a place to live, a break. Lets face it, that is exactly what society intended this list to do. We don't want a monster that preys on little boys and girls living next door to us or delivering our pizza. However for the aforementioned offenders who shouldn't necessarily be on this list... what is happening to them? They can't get good paying jobs. They can't live in a "nice" community. They can't move up or be a "pillar" of society. And for many of them... they end up becoming a victim of the registry... turning to a life of short lived crime. I say short lived because we have devoted our sex offender detectives to track them... and it's just a matter of time before they are caught screwing up. We of course applaud law enforcement for doing this job... because we're getting the "perverts" off the street.
If you're thinking about getting into law enforcement, specifically sex crimes, I would say you have job security. The list of sexual offenders is growing everyday. We continue to funnel any and all sex crimes into the registry. While other states have passed laws to protect the consenting teenagers from becoming a victim of this list... Florida has yet to take this step. You won't find a politician willing to propose such a change in the registry because it would be political suicide. As I said earlier... no one has sympathy for the sexual offender.
Of the hundreds of sex cases our police and sheriff's department are handling... roughly 99% involve new "offenders". That means the greatest threat to our children, ironically, are those not listed on the sex offender/predator website. That's scary.
I agree we must do our best to protect our children. That means the registry should include those who are a real threat to society... not everyone who committed a sex crime. How do you decide who's a real threat though?
Have you ever wondered why we don't have a public registry for convicted murderers? Take a look at this study on recidivism done by the State of Washington. I would be curious to see this study done in Florida.
http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/06-03-1201.pdf
http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/05-12-1202.pdf
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
The Good, the Bad, and the Costly
I thought we would spend a few minutes today on the people I spend a lot of time dealing with on a daily basis: The Public Information Officer or PIO.
The PIO is the connection between government or private agency and the general public. They are the point person for inquiries, press releases, and many times interviews.
On the whole the PIO's in Southwest Florida do a great job. They are knowledgeable, resourceful, and prompt. It is a often a stressful job, especially if your agency deals with the media. Reporters are very demanding, especially when they are on deadline. Reporters expect the PIO to drop what they are doing to handle their request. When that doesn't happen... some reporters get nasty... some PIO's return the attitude (or in some cases remember that nastiness for future requests.)
I understand why requests are many times not as timely as the media would like it. We live in a "need to know now" society more than ever. News websites are becoming increasing competitive. If you don't believe me, ask the editors at the local papers. I tend to think the PIO's labeled by the media as "bad" are the overwhelmed. The "bad" get dozens of inquiries a day from the media, the public, and also must juggle a laundry list of administrative duties. It boggles my mind that an agency can grow by dozens of employees, if not hundreds, yet not expand their public information sector.
Public information officers are paid for by you and me... the taxpayers. But it's also a very profitable business. Under Florida law they can charge you for things like copies, tapes, and cds. I agree that cost should be passed along to the end user. However the law allows them to charge you anywhere from $ .15 a page to $1.00 a page... and they do. For example if you need to pull a case or policy that's 50 pages ($50), you just purchased the agency two cases of paper or toner for the week. See where the profit comes into play?
Public information officers can also charge you for their time. Under Florida law should your request take them over 15 minutes, you can now be billed their hourly rate. Even if the PIO doesn't answer your question, they can charge you the time (over 15min) it took to find that out. This law makes sense because it keeps the public for inundating the PIO with time consuming requests. However in my opinion the law and these charges are kind of an oxymoron. The job title is public information officer. It's paid for by the public. And yet... we have to pay more because I asked a time consuming question?
Here is an idea: Instead of charging people for a PIO's time... why don't we take some of the monies from these inflated copy charges to pay for another PIO? That would take away from the overwhelmed, improve communication, and improve efficiency.
I wonder where the monies from all these copy/time charges are going right now?
The PIO is the connection between government or private agency and the general public. They are the point person for inquiries, press releases, and many times interviews.
On the whole the PIO's in Southwest Florida do a great job. They are knowledgeable, resourceful, and prompt. It is a often a stressful job, especially if your agency deals with the media. Reporters are very demanding, especially when they are on deadline. Reporters expect the PIO to drop what they are doing to handle their request. When that doesn't happen... some reporters get nasty... some PIO's return the attitude (or in some cases remember that nastiness for future requests.)
I understand why requests are many times not as timely as the media would like it. We live in a "need to know now" society more than ever. News websites are becoming increasing competitive. If you don't believe me, ask the editors at the local papers. I tend to think the PIO's labeled by the media as "bad" are the overwhelmed. The "bad" get dozens of inquiries a day from the media, the public, and also must juggle a laundry list of administrative duties. It boggles my mind that an agency can grow by dozens of employees, if not hundreds, yet not expand their public information sector.
Public information officers are paid for by you and me... the taxpayers. But it's also a very profitable business. Under Florida law they can charge you for things like copies, tapes, and cds. I agree that cost should be passed along to the end user. However the law allows them to charge you anywhere from $ .15 a page to $1.00 a page... and they do. For example if you need to pull a case or policy that's 50 pages ($50), you just purchased the agency two cases of paper or toner for the week. See where the profit comes into play?
Public information officers can also charge you for their time. Under Florida law should your request take them over 15 minutes, you can now be billed their hourly rate. Even if the PIO doesn't answer your question, they can charge you the time (over 15min) it took to find that out. This law makes sense because it keeps the public for inundating the PIO with time consuming requests. However in my opinion the law and these charges are kind of an oxymoron. The job title is public information officer. It's paid for by the public. And yet... we have to pay more because I asked a time consuming question?
Here is an idea: Instead of charging people for a PIO's time... why don't we take some of the monies from these inflated copy charges to pay for another PIO? That would take away from the overwhelmed, improve communication, and improve efficiency.
I wonder where the monies from all these copy/time charges are going right now?
Friday, January 05, 2007
Can the State Attorney's Office save the Cape?
Friday Cape Coral Mayor suggested Mickey Rosado's forfeiture hearing being delayed until further notice. Of course it was on the condition that Rosado not participate in council meetings until he's been cleared by the State Attorney's Office.
Is the mayor reading this blog? Perhaps the City Attorney? Actually I'm sure neither of them needed to hear my opinion on the Rosado case to realize where they are headed... court. As I said before if Rosado elects to continue with this forfeiture hearing... he will have one heck of an appeals case.
What Cape Coral council needs... is praying for... is that the State Attorney's office comes down with a decision on whether or not to charge Rosado with a crime before February's hearing. It would save the Cape money, time, and possibly some court dates. (oh and save me some blog space)
I bet it happens soon.
Is the mayor reading this blog? Perhaps the City Attorney? Actually I'm sure neither of them needed to hear my opinion on the Rosado case to realize where they are headed... court. As I said before if Rosado elects to continue with this forfeiture hearing... he will have one heck of an appeals case.
What Cape Coral council needs... is praying for... is that the State Attorney's office comes down with a decision on whether or not to charge Rosado with a crime before February's hearing. It would save the Cape money, time, and possibly some court dates. (oh and save me some blog space)
I bet it happens soon.
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