The Florida Department of Law Enforcement recommends that municipal police departments in the state employ 2.5 full-time sworn officers for every 1,000 residents.
Using that formula, a city with Vero Beach’s population of approximately 17,000 should have at least 42 police officers on its payroll.
The Vero Beach Police Department currently has 61, which is 3.6 officers per 1,000 residents – more than a full point above the state average of 2.3 – but it probably should have even more.
The reason?
If you take into account the surge in home construction in the county in recent years, along with the annual influx of seasonal residents and dramatic increases in tourism, the number of people the department is asked to serve is significantly larger than the city’s population.
“It’s at least double, and probably more,” Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey said. “And during the season, it might be close to triple the city’s population. But I can’t give you a specific number.”
That’s because there’s no way to know.
The county’s population, which the U.S. Census Bureau listed at 160,000 in 2020, already has reached 170,000 and continues to climb as new construction is underway, with more planned.
It appears, too – based on the noticeable daytime increases in summer traffic on local roadways – most of the newcomers, especially those on the mainland, are year-round residents.
It’s fair to assume, then, that most of them are among the thousands of county residents who visit, or pass through, Vero Beach on a regular basis and add to the population served by the city’s police department.
We also see an ever-growing workforce commuting into the city from neighboring counties on a daily basis because there’s a alarming shortage of affordable housing here.
And don’t forget the northern St. Lucie County residents who not only work in Vero Beach, but also shop, visit friends and seek entertainment in the city.
“We are the hub of the county, so we get a disproportionate number of people coming into the city,” Vero Beach Mayor John Cotugno said last week. “And it’s not just people coming in to shop, or dine, or go to the beach.
“Every time someone in the county goes to the courthouse, or the county administration building, or the airport, or the marina – or even to play pickleball at Pocahontas Park – they’re coming into the city,” he continued. “And that doesn’t include the people who live in the county but work in the city, which is the home of Piper Aircraft, the largest private employer in the community.
“Nor does it include all the county residents who go to Riverside Park, and Riverside Theatre, and the Museum of Art; or go to churches in the city; or drive across the two busiest bridges in the county.”
He paused briefly, then added: “They come into the city, and we have to provide public safety.”
There’s already a need for another officer at the Vero Beach Regional Airport, where Breeze Airways continues to expand its service, especially during our busy season. Also, the demand for more policing will increase considerably with the development of the Three Corners site on the west end of the 17th Street bridge.
Indeed, the Three Corners waterfront project would become the city’s most attractive draw – other than its beaches, perhaps – since the Los Angeles Dodgers, who conducted spring training in Vero Beach for 61 mostly wonderful years, left for the Arizona desert in 2008.
Yet Vero Beach taxpayers, with no meaningful contribution from the county, fund their police department, which accounts for about one-third of the city’s budget.
“The cost of policing comes out of our general fund,” City Manager Monte Falls said. “That means it’s covered by the taxpayers, but also through utility taxes and transfers from enterprise funds, such as water and sewer, solid waste and the marina.”
Vero Beach does not receive any tourist-tax revenues from the county,
however, even though more than half of those monies are generated in the city, which provides many, if not most, of the local tourist attractions.
The fact that the county doesn’t allow the city to even apply for those revenues has long been a source of contention.
“We get asked all the time by city residents: Why can’t we get at least a percentage of those revenues?” Cotugno said. “We’re in one of only a few counties in the state that doesn’t allow municipalities to participate in sharing bed-tax money.”
That’s one reason the city runs on a tight budget. Another reason is a distaste for raising property taxes.
So when the Great Recession arrived in 2008-09 fiscal year, city officials drastically downsized operations and cut spending, and the police department’s payroll absorbed a direct hit. Ranks were reduced. Positions were lost.
Currey said the department was reduced to 52 officers by early 2012 – down from a high of 62 when he joined the agency in 1990 – and has been recovering since, though he added that the agency currently can provide the requested services “as long as we’re fully staffed.”
When shorthanded, he said, the department needs to pull officers assigned to special-duty units, such as Marine, K-9 and Traffic Enforcement.
Still, it’s impossible to not notice that the department had 62 officers in 1990, when the county’s population was about 90,000, and has 61 now, when the county’s population is on its way to doubling what it was then.
The city’s population, meanwhile, hasn’t changed.
“The city hasn’t annexed any property, so the population hasn’t changed much,” Falls said. “We were at about 17,000 when I started here in 1991, and we’re still there. That’s probably not going to change.”
What’s changing is the county’s population, which is rapidly moving toward 175,000 and is projected to be more than 200,000 in 2030. Inevitably, that growth will result in more people coming into the 13.1-square-mile city – thousands of them – and produce an increased demand for the policing needed to ensure public safety.
At what expense? Currey said it costs about $100,000 to put an officer on the streets.
Using Currey’s estimate and the FDLE’s formula: The 20 additional police officers currently needed to protect and serve a population that far exceeds the number of Vero Beach residents cost city taxpayers about $2 million annually.
“That has a profound impact on our budget and the millage rate,” Cotugno said.
But 61 might not be enough, especially as more residential developments break ground in the county.
The city added four new officers last year, creating a full-time position at the airport and assigning the others to the Marine, Traffic Enforcement and Community Policing units.
Does the department need more manpower?
According to the FDLE’s 2023 statistics, most similar-sized cities in the state had fewer police officers per 1,000 residents: Florida City (2.5), Lake Mary (2.9), Lake Wales (2.8), Marco Island (2.6), Mount Dora (2.0), New Port Richey (2.6), Niceville (1.8) and Opa Locka (2.9).
Closer to home, the ratios ranged from Port St. Lucie (1.2) and Palm Bay (1.4) to Melbourne Beach (3.1) and Indian River Shores (6.4). Sebastian had 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, while Fellsmere has 1.9.
Both Fort Pierce and Stuart – the Treasure Coast city closest in size to Vero Beach with a population of just over 19,000 – came in at 2.7.
“You’re asking a police chief if he could use more people,” Currey said. “I definitely could make a case for more, and they wouldn’t be wasted. They would be doing something.
“It all depends on the level of service we’re asked to provide,” he added. “We’ve met the services the city has asked for, but we could use another officer on the river, at the airport and in community policing.
“The way Breeze is adding destinations, we might need another officer at the airport soon – because last season was crazy out there.”
You can expect this season to be crazier, as Vero Beach embraces its role as “The Hamptons of Miami.”
And not only at the airport.
Let’s hope the city’s police department stays fully staffed.