Independent review calls North Port police 'professional,' recommends four more patrol officers

City Manager Fletcher and outside consultants presented an independent operational assessment of the North Port Police Department to the City Commission on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, concluding the agency "is a professional organization" and offering 68 recommendations intended to align operations with modern policing standards.

The review, conducted by the Center for Public Safety Management (CPSM), relied on a year of computer-aided dispatch data, interviews and on-site observation. Jerry Bergwan, a retired police chief and CPSM presenter, told the commission the analysis showed North Port’s indexed crime rates compare favorably with state and national averages, but identified staffing and workload imbalances that can affect service and emergency response.

"Importantly, the overall conclusion of the consultants is, we have a professional organization," City Manager Fletcher said during the presentation. Bergwan said the report includes recommendations ranging from policy review and succession planning to dispatch-priority adjustments and training improvements.

Key findings the report highlighted include: the department had 158 sworn personnel on the books at the time of the review, with 69 assigned to patrol (about 44 percent), below CPSM’s "rule of 60" standard that recommends at least 60 percent of sworn staff be assigned to patrol functions; average deployment during sampled summer weekends was about 11.7 officers per hour; priority-1 response times averaged about 10 minutes in the dataset reviewed; traffic-related incidents accounted for roughly 32 percent of activity; and the typical officer spent about 42 minutes on community-initiated calls.

CPSM recommended adding four full-time-equivalent officers to the mid shift to improve patrol capacity. Commissioners asked for cost estimates; one staff member estimated startup costs (vehicles, equipment) in the range of $250,000–$260,000 per officer and recurring fully loaded annual costs around $115,000.

Commissioners pressed CPSM and Chief Todd Garrison on several implementation details: whether the agency is capturing all administrative workload in CAD, whether dispatch priorities should be tightened to better reflect true emergent threats, and how the city's canals and bridge network affect travel times in several large patrol zones. Bergwan recommended clarifying dispatch priority rules and better capturing administrative reporting time to avoid undercounting workload.

The report also encouraged North Port PD to evaluate subscription policy services or embed a legal review process into policy updates, formalize succession planning in writing, develop a master training plan, and consider reconstituting or expanding civilian support roles such as CSOs to take non-sworn workload off patrol officers.

Public commenters raised related and separate concerns. Joseph Majorino requested city video records of an incident in a March 3 lobby interaction and later criticized permitting practices, alleging he was sold a permit without required engineer drawings. Cheryl Cook, speaking in person during public comment, said she was relieved that a statewide proposal (identified in the comment as SBHB 945) did not pass and warned against creating intelligence units without clear oversight. Tim Doyle and other residents urged keeping internal affairs separate from training to avoid adversarial conflicts.

No formal vote was taken on CPSM’s recommendations; City Manager Fletcher and Chief Garrison said many suggested changes are already being considered or are in progress and that affordability and prioritization would guide next steps. The commission approved the meeting agenda earlier in the session by a 5–0 vote and adjourned about 2:00 p.m.

Votes at a glance: The commission approved the meeting agenda (motion by Commissioner Stokes, seconded by Vice Mayor Langdon) on a 5–0 vote; there were no formal votes on the CPSM recommendations during this meeting.

The next procedural step appears to be continued consideration of which recommendations will be budgeted and scheduled for implementation as the city manager and police command work through budget planning and operational timelines.