Fort Pierce police chief outlines staffing plan and tech upgrades after CPSM review

Chief Smith told the Fort Pierce City Commission on Monday that his department has acted on many recommendations from the Center for Public Safety Management and outlined a multi-year plan to strengthen staffing, training and technology.

"I sent that to Mr. Chess last week," Chief Smith said of the department's new strategic plan and described work to update about 170 policies and publish a public-facing strategic plan for 2026'029. He said the department is considering a subscription to Lexipol, a policy-management platform tailored for public safety, but warned CALEA accreditation would be redundant and costly.

The chief listed several concrete staffing figures and near-term actions: the department had 11 vacancies, 4 officers in field training, 12 in the academy and 4 officers in the background/certified-hire pipeline. "Once all of our staffing is in place," he said, "we hope to get our vacancy rate from about 7.5% toward an ideal 3to6%."

Commissioners asked for fiscal context and timelines. "Somewhere close about $3,000,000 is where you estimated we need right now," Commissioner Johnson said, pressing staff to produce a schedule aligning capital needs with expected tax-roll increases as new development comes online. Chief Smith replied that core capital requests are roughly $2,300,000 and that some needs could be deferred a year or two, but that staffing and technology gaps are urgent.

On data and performance tools, the chief described work to implement Microsoft Power BI dashboards and a real-time crime center to improve clearance rates and guide patrol deployment. "Power BI can create dashboards and GIS maps to direct resources," he said, adding the department recently acquired several digital-evidence tools to handle modern cell-phone and computer forensics.

Commissioners praised early outreach and community engagement. "I love the Ask the Chief forum," Commissioner Gaines said, urging continued town halls and district meetings. Several commissioners also urged attention to recruiting diverse candidates and to working with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office and other agencies to broaden coverage where patrol overlaps county lines.

The chief also discussed evidence-room space, records-system upgrades (inclining toward a replacement evidence module called FilonQ) and a new promotion process that will use an outside vendor and an RFP. He recommended adding sworn personnel to CID and investing in training and succession planning; staff have asked for several new professional positions in the FY27 budget to support those goals.

What happens next: commissioners asked staff to provide cost and scheduling details as the FY27 budget process starts, and to circulate the chief's public-facing strategic plan when it posts to the department website.