Unlike the past two months in which no business could be conducted, the Police Department and Citizens Committee managed to have all three board members present, which made for a quorum in which business could be conducted. However, perhaps due in part to the lack of a quorum November and December, there were no minutes to review and no agenda.

As a result, chairman Davis Connor reiterated that the purpose of the committee was to provide an open forum to make suggestions at the policy level to the police department.

Wilena Vreeland said she was speaking for a resident in her neighborhood, an elderly woman and retired teacher in her 80s. Vreeland said the woman had told her she had received phone calls that were later traced coming from Tennessee telling her that if she didn’t cooperate she would be sued. In addition to that situation, someone had “precariously” parked an oversized truck near the woman’s home, which had been there the past several weeks, unmoved.

The problem, however, was that the woman had called the Lake Wales police and had not heard back, Vreeland said. The possibility existed, said Lt. Joe Elrod, that the woman may have called the detective division instead of calling him. He told Vreeland that after the meeting concluded he would have an officer visit the woman. He then spoke of the harassing phone calls.

“She is being scammed,” he said. “There are a lot of scams going around and this is one of them.” Elrod explained how the scam worked. Unscrupulous people go online and find homeowners who are behind in the mortgage and facing foreclosure. They then barrage the homeowner with threatening phone calls, telling them that if they don’t pay that formal complaints will be filed and the homeowner will go to jail.

However, replied Vreeland, the woman already owned her home outright. Not only that, but the people from Tennessee were calling her Bridgette, which is not the woman’s name.

Following a brief lull, Jessica Thompson, a staff assistant with the police force, updated the committee on its request to city commissioners to reduce from three to two, the number needed to form a quorum. Commissioners will address the issue at the Feb. 7 meeting.

The “elephant in the room” was then raised by Leon Weech, a member of the public who asked what the procedures were regarding police officer termination process. Without anyone ever mentioning Captain James Foy by name, Elrod and Joseph Vanblarcom (also a member of the police force, as well as a board member), responded. “There are several steps in the due process procedure,” said Elrod.

“It’s a long, strung-out thing to get to that point (being fired),” he said. It also depended upon the situation, as there are those conditions in which termination is immediate, such as if an officer commits perjury. Elrod said he remembered an incident several years ago in which three officers were immediately terminated when they testified in court and the judge was not buying the testimony.

“It’s written so there are checks and balances,” said VanBlarcom.

Nor did it matter, said both Elrod and VanBlarcom, what an officer’s record was. Their answer was in response to another question by Weech, who gave the hypothetical example of two officers who commit the same transgression, with one officer having a stellar record.

“The only thing considered is the aggravators, the action of the behavior,” said VanBlarcom. However, determining what punishment to apply is what may differ between the two officers Weech used in his hypothetical example.

Vreeland asked for clarification on what “expunge” means. While an incident on the official record is removed as if it never occurred, the record still exists, in part thanks to the Internet. “It means you can legally say no,” said Elrod. However, due to technology, type in a person’s name and especially true in media reports, information will be discovered, Elrod added.

However, technology was lauded by Elrod. He stated his firm belief that because of advances, the cost to purchase new equipment has more than offset by having reduced lawsuits and settlements. Most often, he said, video and audio recordings have proven their mettle when dealing with a number of complainants who dropped threatened action when confronted.

“It’s all there in black and white,” said Nathan Minton, one of the three board members. “Can’t argue with that.”