School safety. Youth outreach. Cold cases. Heroin and opioids. St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara has entered 2019 with a list of priorities he will continue to tackle, few of which will be easy.
“2019 is going to be quite challenging moving forward with continuing to keep our schools, our children, and our School Board personnel safe on campuses,” Sheriff Mascara said.
In the wake of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland on Feb. 14, 2018, the St. Lucie County School District requested deputies be posted at each school. Doing so required the sheriff to reorganize the department to ensure that other needs within the community weren’t slighted.
The sheriff told St. Lucie Voice that the shooting immediately changed the department’s entire operational focus. “That focus continues in 2019,” he said.
The Sheriff’s Office staff, and that of St. Lucie Public Schools, continues to undergo training for various scenarios.
Tied into assisting with school safety, the Sheriff’s Office has renewed its efforts to reach out to the county’s youth. School Resource Deputies are one method, according to Mascara. The deputies are expected to help bridge gaps between youth and law enforcement – to be that proverbial friendly face in the corridor, and not just someone on the lookout for rules violations.
The Sheriff’s Office also plans to host pop-up parties throughout the county, host camps during school breaks, and other events – “a million things,” Mascara said.
Another paramount issue for the sheriff is the continuing threat of heroin and opioids in the community. “I can’t divulge techniques,” Mascara said when asked how the agency would be combating drug dealing. “But our team sure has techniques to ID dealers.”
He explained that his agency is expected to tackle drugs at the source – the dealers and suppliers – and not target the users.
“We have great sympathy for” drug users, Sheriff Mascara said, noting that many became addicted to the drugs via a legal medical prescription. The dealers, however, will get no such sympathy. They are “selling poison in the community,” the sheriff said.
The Sheriff’s Office has been tasked with securing dealing/selling charges against suspected drug dealers. Such suspects – if convicted – would receive the longest prison terms. And while the Special Investigations Unit goes after suspected drug dealers, others within the department continue to review so-called “cold cases.”
“They’re never cold,” Mascara said. “They’re old, but they’re not forgotten.”
The sheriff said his investigators continue to go back and revisit the cases, searching for new evidence. “We want to focus on getting those solved,” he said.
All in all, Mascara said the department is ready for 2019. “Each and every year, we hope for a quiet year,” he said. “But things can turn in a second.”
