{"id":51295,"date":"2021-11-15T23:47:30","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T04:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=51295"},"modified":"2021-11-15T23:47:35","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T04:47:35","slug":"fort-myers-city-council-members-vote-in-favor-of-an-independent-investigation-into-fmpd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/11\/fort-myers-city-council-members-vote-in-favor-of-an-independent-investigation-into-fmpd\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Myers City Council members vote in favor of an independent investigation into FMPD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fort Myers City Council called for an independent investigation into the Fort Myers Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Fort Myers City Council needs to release the Freeh report and uphold the law!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An internal FMPD investigation cleared the department of accusations that it misled taxpayers over the cost of a new police headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City council members say this needs to be looked into further. However, Fort Myers Police Chief Derrick Diggs says the investigation is already over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis investigation is now completed. And I stand firmly behind the results of this completed investigation. Firmly,\u201d Chief Diggs said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four Fort Myers City Council members are on record calling for an independent investigation. Those council members ordered the Fort Myers City Manager to perform that investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, other councilmembers decided they no longer wanted to see an independent investigation. Councilwoman Teresa Watkins-Brown told the news weeks ago that she was for an independent investigation. On Monday, she changed her mind. \u201cAnd as I thought about it, what are we actually investigating? We have a meeting. Someone said something. And pertaining to a bailout of the police department,\u201d said Watkins-Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe Councilwoman Teresa Watkins-Brown needs to read the Freeh report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council then voted to conduct the independent investigation. This is due to allegations of corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Inspector General for FMPD Donald Oswald accused former Major William Newhouse of giving an unethical order. He told a lieutenant not to talk with the council about the cost overruns in constructing the new police headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That international investigation came back unfounded. Fort Myers City Councilman Liston Bouchette says he wants the independent investigation because the internal investigation was performed by an investigator who worked for Newhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe real big question here is how do we make our city more transparent, more fair, more open,\u201d Bouchette said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re the whistleblower or you\u2019re the critic, you need to have an ear that\u2019s not owning to anybody. Chief, his duties are to take care of his department stop crime so this would be really in best keeping for good government outside,\u201d said Bouchette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson said the appearance that the police department wasn\u2019t transparent is enough to initiate the independent investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motion to investigate passed 5-2. Now, it\u2019s up to the City Manager to hire someone to do it. The city plans to investigate whether Major Newhouse gave an unethical order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City Manager told the news it could go to a state, local or federal agency, but most likely, the city will have to hire a private consultant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation also has to be outlined by the City Manager. This includes a review of Oswald\u2019s allegations, a review of the FMPD internal investigation, an evaluation of Oswald\u2019s claim that he was forced to resign, and looking deeper into the department\u2019s policies and orders regarding internal investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Diggs went on to say he has no issue with an independent review of the investigation, as long as it complies with Florida state law and the officer bill of rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newhouse told the news weeks ago that he would participate in any new investigation saying, \u201cI\u2019ve got nothing to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fort Myers City Council called for an independent investigation into the Fort Myers Police Department. The Fort Myers City Council needs to release the Freeh report and uphold the law!… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[880],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51298,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51295\/revisions\/51298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}