Public safety: a responsibility I don’t take lightly

It’s been my honor and my responsibility to keep a focus on public safety in Fort Lauderdale. As your Mayor, I take that job seriously. I’d like to share the many ways we’ve worked successfully to keep our community secure with public safety efforts that I will continue to expand upon as your Mayor.

Expanding police and fire protection

• We did this by budgeting for an additional 35 police officers and 26 fire personnel in just the past two years.
• To help firefighters respond to calls while companion rescue units are on other calls, we increased the number of rescue units and added new staff.

Building new fire and police stations

• We led a public referendum to raise funds to construct, and then broke ground on, a new, state-of-the-art police headquarters where Chief William Schultz will bring innovative ideas to improve policing in our city.
• We’ll soon complete a major overhaul of our fire-rescue facilities: building or replacing 11 stations! 

Advancing tech to keep us safe

• We installed new tech that detects and reports the location of gunshots to police. And with the help of tactical analysts we placed in the police department, our Real Time Crime Center will better be able to relay necessary information to solve crimes.
• We increased police accountability by making sure our officers have body cameras.

We also worked closely to protect the public and preserve police resources by collaborating with the fire department to launch a new mobile integrated healthcare program to give people in crisis non-emergency services and the proper care they need. Additionally, we collaborated with the police department and city leadership to assess and address our community’s actual concerns by creating a new Community Support Unit.

Thank you for all of your support over the years. I am forever grateful for your generosity and trust.

Truly,

Dean