Chris Cate: Welcome to the Fluent in Floridian podcast, featuring the Sunshine State's brightest leaders, talking about the issues most important to the people of Florida and its millions of weekly visitors. I'm your host, Chris Cate, and in this episode created by SalterMitchellPR, our guest is Amy Mercer, executive director of the Florida Police Chiefs Association. In our conversation, we talk about Amy's work advocating for police chiefs in all parts of Florida and how their needs have changed since Amy began at the FPCA. We also talk about police efforts to maintain positive relationships in Florida communities and about the sacrifice police officers and their families make keeping Florida safe, and you can hear it all right now.

Amy, thanks for being on the show. Florida's police chiefs play such an important role in our state, and you play an important role representing them. Can you tell me, how did you first get involved with the Florida Police Chiefs Association?

Amy Mercer: Okay. Kind of an interesting story because my background is not law enforcement, which you typically think it would be, but no. I was approaching the 40-year-old mark, and I was somewhat, not disgruntled in my current position, but I was looking to do something different. And I thought, "Oh, I'm getting to the age if I'm going to make a change, I need to do it now," and started sending out blind resumes and actually took a big pay cut to a more entry level type position, answered an interview from the Florida Police Chiefs Association for an executive assistant, and that's how I came to the Florida Police Chiefs Association.

Chris Cate: Were there any law enforcement officers or someone similar who were influential in your life growing up that maybe drew you to this industry?

Amy Mercer: Well you know, it's really funny that you ask that because my great-grandfather on my mother's side, he was in law enforcement. He ... In fact, it's kind of a neat tidbit of information I'll share here. Years ago, he was in Ripley's Believe it or Not, I know, as the longest acting living sheriff in Georgia, where I'm originally from.

Chris Cate: Wow.

Amy Mercer: So I would say that he was somewhat influential because I grew up hearing the stories about him from my grandfather who I was extremely close with and then of course from my mom.

Chris Cate: How have you seen the issues facing police chiefs and departments change from 1999, when I think you started, until now?

Amy Mercer: Well you know, the past several years has been quite challenging for law enforcement, but for the positive side, they've also been very progressive. Technology itself has changed drastically. The tools for law enforcement ... It's just been impacted significantly with technology. I think that we'll all recognize technology in our daily lives has changed so much, but also I think the professionalism of law enforcement. I believe the quality of police chiefs. We help municipalities hire police chiefs, and the quality of individuals that I've seen in the past few years, it's incredible, the amount of time and effort and education and training that they put into their careers.

Chris Cate: And one of the differences which I think you were alluding to a little bit, it's not something unique to Florida, but it is that heated debate that exists right now, particularly on social media about how effectively police are doing their jobs. Certainly some of that criticism, if not most of it, is unfair, but there may be some areas where improvement is possible.

What is your reaction to that contentious debate about the efforts of law enforcement officers?

Amy Mercer: Sure, and I think it's ... Of course for me in my position, when I began with the Police Chiefs Association back in '99, it was a job. It started as a job, and it quickly became a passion. And the reason it did is because I learned very quickly that I was working with some incredible individuals, and what I mean by that is true public servants.

So when I look and I see some of the information that is out there, it's concerning to me because I know the type of commitment and dedication that the majority of our law enforcement members have. They're truly individuals that's wanting to make a difference to better their communities and the citizens that they serve better their lives, but I do recognize that unfortunately in all industry there are some bad apples, and law enforcement is no different.

However, I will say that I agree that law enforcement should hold ourselves to a higher standard. We should be accountable higher than the typical citizen, but I also believe that we need to address the situation with those bad apples to ensure that things of that nature, that maybe you are seeing on social media and other things, do not happen again.

I think that we always have to look at how we can continue to improve our profession, and that's part of our mission is to enhance law enforcement professionalism in the state of Florida.

Chris Cate: How have you seen this debate impact Florida's police chiefs and departments? Not just in practice of what they're doing but just mentally about going about their job.

Amy Mercer: It's huge. It's extremely concerning for our police chiefs because they have a lot of young officers working underneath them. They're concerned for their safety, their well-being. It's difficult when you're especially a police chief and you know that your officers could be targeted and killed that day. That's something that we as an association and because of our police chiefs and our leadership, that we're really focused on. Even our upcoming conference that we have in August over in Panama City, it will address officer safety, health, and wellness because we now know during these times that's extremely important. And beyond that, it's really hurting the profession as far as hiring and retaining police officers. So that's a huge issue for, not only in Florida, but throughout the nation.

Chris Cate: Is there anything that you've seen that's been effective about how to reach out to people in areas where relationships with police that need to be mended?

Amy Mercer: Well, I'll tell you. I know that there are some incredible community policing programs that are going on throughout the state every day. I think ... I mean, there's a lot of Coffee with a Cop. There's a lot of interaction with youth in the communities, so I'm really impressed with the job that our agencies are doing to reach out to all of our communities.

You know I think even if ... And I do believe we have tremendous support. Law enforcement has tremendous support throughout the state of Florida and I believe throughout the country, but if there's ever that perception that may not be favorable, we have to do whatever we can do as leaders to make sure that we change that.

Chris Cate: Being a police officer, like you mentioned, sometimes means making the ultimate sacrifice for your community. There's a memorial here in Tallahassee where there's an annual memorial service for fallen officers. What goes through your mind during those services where there aren't really any words that can truly express the gratitude we have for fallen officers and their families?

Amy Mercer: Yeah. I think for all of us, it's extremely emotional because a lot of times we know some of the behind-the-scenes information as far as the young children that they have, the parents that they have. I think that's sometime what we all maybe forget is that our law enforcement officers, they are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters. They're truly just like you and I. So I think we lose that fact, and I think we forget when a law enforcement officer, a lot of times they're the sole provider in their home. They may have young children, and so their death ... not that any death doesn't, but their death is felt very deeply by very many.

So it's really important for groups like ours, the Florida Police Chiefs Association, to pay our proper respect and thanks to those individuals that's paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Chris Cate: In addition to the memorial at the capital, which I think serves all law enforcement officers, I know you're looking at building something specific to police officers here near where your organization is located. Can you tell me a little bit about that and what you're hoping to do?

Amy Mercer: Right. We are. We're hoping to ... we're here in Tallahassee, our headquarters, and we're hoping to establish a memorial that will honor and recognize those police officers from throughout the state of Florida that have paid that ultimate sacrifice.  And that's extremely important to our leadership and our police chiefs to do that for, not only currently, the people that are able to come and visit, but for our future.

Chris Cate: Florida's Police Chiefs Association is one of the largest such associations in the country. When you go to conferences and learn about how other states are doing, how do Florida's police departments stack up against others across the country?

Amy Mercer: So glad you asked that, because I'm extremely proud of Florida law enforcement. Florida is known throughout the country as one of the most progressive and innovative policing states, so that's something I'm extremely proud of. I'm involved in an organization through IACP. It's the State Association for Chiefs of Police. It's called SACOP.

So it provides us the opportunity to meet, of course myself with other executive directors throughout the country. So they're always looking to Florida for our ideas and the programs that we're implementing, so I'm very proud of Florida law enforcement.

Chris Cate: Your organization, FPCA, endorses political candidates and advocates for legislation that's important to Florida's police departments. I imagine there's a lot of issues that impact your members, so how do you go about choosing which issues to be vocal about and which to maybe just play out in the legislature?

Amy Mercer: Sure. Oh, and that's why I say that's the most favorite part of my job. I'm only kidding. No. But no, it's a very important part of my job because you're absolutely correct. Law enforcement and public safety encompasses so many issues, and we have a process. We have a legislative committee that's made up of police chiefs throughout the state of Florida.  They serve on this committee and review legislative issues for us, but we also seek input from our membership on issues that they may be dealing with, within their communities, that we need to address legislatively. So we seek the input from our membership, and then it's presented to our board of directors who then votes on and establishes our legislative agendas each year.

Chris Cate: What was your learning curve like, trying to grasp all this? Because you really went from executive assistant to executive director in a fairly short amount of time. So how was it learning about all these issues and kind of such a flood of information?

Amy Mercer: Yeah. That was challenging, but what was so good about it ... and I talked previously about that the people that I worked with ... I found out very quickly when I was appointed in 2004 as the executive director that I had a tremendous amount of subject matter experts on various issues that were so willing to offer me their assistance, their guidance, their mentoring. And I reached out to them. I knew that I had those individuals, and I never received a no. They were always so glad and appreciative to be able to offer input and guidance on certain issues. So, yeah. I picked up the phone and made phone calls.

Chris Cate: How do the needs of police departments in rural areas differ from departments in Florida's major markets like Hillsborough County or Miami-Dade?

Amy Mercer: Yeah, you know that ... We talk about this a lot, especially on a lot of legislative issues. Florida is so diverse in its communities from one end of the state, to the next, to the middle part of the state. They all vary greatly. Some agencies in the more metropolitan areas, they may have a team of lawyers. They may have a huge command staff, a large number of officers where a lot of the duties are segregated. In some of the smaller agencies, the police chief, he may actually be still answering calls.

So there's a big diversity in law enforcement and the needs of law enforcement. So we're always very mindful of that when we're working with our legislators to explain that unfortunately that one-size-fits-all approach just does not work for Florida.

Chris Cate: When you look kind of across the board and at the future of police work in Florida, where is the greatest need?

Amy Mercer: I think a lot of us are talking about the mental health issues that we're all facing throughout the country, but I think also here in Florida. I think recruitment and retention of quality police officers is a huge issue, especially now with the new school safety legislation where we're already, a lot of our agencies are experiencing a shortage of manpower. And now they're looking at needing many additional officers to fill school resource officer positions.

So I think some of the violent crime, counter-terrorism issues, but I think, again, it's not unique. These issues are not particularly unique to Florida, although maybe some of the counter-terrorism issues could be more serious in Florida because of our location, but I think the mental health issues is really impacting a lot of areas of public safety as well as law enforcement. A lot of time that they spend trying to deal with these type of individuals because, again, law enforcement officers are human. They would like a nice safe place to take these individuals that are experiencing a crisis instead of having to bring them into the law enforcement system because they have no choice, or the criminal justice system.

‍Chris Cate: What is the advice given to officers about how to navigate social media? Because on one hand you would like to say ignore social media because there's so much negativity on there, but at the same time there's a lot of clues or even tips to potential crimes maybe forthcoming, so you really can't ignore that. So how do police officers kind of navigate social media in this world where there's a lot of false information out there? And I'm not talking about just the debate about police officers but even something as significant as school shootings where you may have some dumb teenager making a flippant comment, whereas on the other hand you may have a very serious threat on social media. How do you follow those things?

Amy Mercer: Yeah. It's funny you bring that up as well because that was one of our legislative initiatives this past year, was ... There was a glitch, I'll call it, in our law where to make a threat to an individual, it had to be made in writing directly to the individual. So it prohibited law enforcement from really investigating and addressing those threats that, because of technology coming up, the law just had not kept up with; now we're receiving threats on social media.

So we worked with our legislators, and actually some of that language got placed in the school safety senate bill, 7026. So now law enforcement, because I'm sure you may be aware, post-Parkland, I mean, there was a huge increase in the number of threats, social media threats to go and shoot up a school or various threats of that kind.

So law enforcement, as they do any other type of potential threat or crime, they have a process where they investigate it to see if it is in fact a legitimate threat or could it be an individual that's in a mental health crisis that they can hopefully then help and assist during that bad time or if it's some kid playing around on the internet.

Chris Cate: Should students expect to see anything different this upcoming school year about how police are looking and monitoring schools as opposed to the past?

Amy Mercer: I think you will, absolutely, because of the school safety legislation that's been implemented. I mean, just for example, at the elementary schools you're going to have a, either ... You're required to have either a school resource officer, a school guardian, or a school safety officer.

Chris Cate: What is an achievement that you're most proud of during your time as executive director?

Amy Mercer: Wow. That I'm most proud of, gosh. I think really at this point I would say I have so many because it's been just such an incredible rewarding experience to be able to serve the group that I serve, police chiefs and law enforcement professionals. I mean, I almost get emotional every time I talk about it. I'm like a huge crybaby when I talk about this because it truly is an honor, and I feel just being able to be here, the time that I have, serving as their executive director has got to be my biggest accomplishment.

Chris Cate: Do you have a white whale piece of legislation that you've been trying to get through that just, you haven't quite managed to pull through yet?

Amy Mercer: Texting while driving. Making it a primary offense. Or hands-free. Yes. That is a huge legislative initiative and concern. It's a huge public safety issue. It truly is. Earlier this week we had our new chiefs training here, and we had Colonel Gene Spaulding from Florida Highway Patrol come over and speak with us, speak with the new chiefs, tell them about what they do for ... to work with local law enforcement. And he was talking about the number of fatalities that we had last year, and it's staggering. And more and more, we're seeing distracted driving as a whole. Not just texting and driving but distracted driving as a whole. It's a serious public safety issue that I would really like to see hopefully addressed in this upcoming session.

Chris Cate: Yeah because I would say even just calling it texting almost minimizes it because it's people searching the internet, looking through iTunes or Spotify.

Amy Mercer: Right.

Chris Cate: It's not just sending a text message.

Amy Mercer: No.

Chris Cate: But it's ... There's a thousand different distractions a cell phone alone can provide.

Amy Mercer: It really is. Yeah. And you see it every day. I think we all ... Every day we're riding, I'm driving into work, and I can't tell you how many times I ... Like you said, someone's sitting; they're looking down at their phone. Their phone's in their hand, and there's cars all around them. Extremely dangerous.

Chris Cate: Well, I like to close every interview with the same four questions.

Amy Mercer: Gladly.

Chris Cate: The first being, who is a Florida leader who you admire? And it can be someone from the past or the present.

Amy Mercer: Okay. I admire Governor Rick Scott, Florida's governor, Rick Scott. I've had the pleasure of working with him since he first came into office, and I really admire Governor Scott because I've had the pleasure of working with a lot of legislators, but I gotta tell you, Governor Rick Scott came in. He reached out to us. He sat down with us. He wanted to hear exactly what our concerns were, what our struggles were, and that has never wavered the whole time he has been in office.

He is just as interested and concerned today as he was eight years ago, almost eight years ago. His work ethic is like none other. He truly cares. I've been so impressed as well, if our state has gone through any type of disaster, whether it be hurricane, whether it be a tragedy like Parkland, whether it be us losing one of our police officers that's been killed in the line of duty, I never, ever have to look for leadership because guess what. Governor Rick Scott's on the phone calling, wanting to know, "Hey, what can I do? What do we need to do to help, make that situation better?"

And I just never had that with any other individual that's in such a high powerful position that he is. So I'm extremely supportive and excited to see what he does in Washington.

Chris Cate: What is a person, place or thing or even an issue that deserves more attention than what it's getting right now in Florida?

Amy Mercer: Again, I would say those two things. Distracted driving. That's huge. We have so many, not only citizens, Floridians, but we have so many visitors and tourists to our state, and for us not to better protect our roadways is just doing us all an injustice. Also the mental health issues. I think we should be paying more attention and doing more to help those individuals.

Chris Cate: Do you have a favorite Florida place to visit?

Amy Mercer: I do. And you're probably going to be like, "What?" But my husband and I, when we get away, we love to just totally shut down and relax. And we do it at Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel, Florida. Are you familiar?

Chris Cate: I'm very familiar.

Amy Mercer: I love it.

Chris Cate: I used to be a valet at Saddlebrook, as a matter of fact.

Amy Mercer: No way.

Chris Cate: Yes.

Amy Mercer: I love that place. I love it. Yeah. We've been going there for like, God, 18 years I think, and we love it. Yeah. My husband loves to play golf. I love to lay at the pool, but it's just a beautiful resort to get away, and they have a lot of wildlife there, as you know, so beautiful walking trails. So, yeah. That's one of our faves.

Chris Cate: Great. Well, last question. Do you have a favorite Florida sports team?

Amy Mercer: Uh-oh. Okay. I'm going to get in trouble here because half of my membership loves FSU. The other half loves the Gators, although I've been seeing a lot of people recently wearing UCF hats, so, but no. My favorite, I've gotta say, is the Seminoles. I'm here in Tallahassee, so I gotta support. Yeah. Seminoles.

Chris Cate: Good. Well, thanks for sharing that, and thanks so much for spending time with me.

‍Amy Mercer: Thank you so much. This was awesome. Thank you.

Chris Cate: Thanks for listening to the Fluent in Floridian podcast. This show is executive produced by April Salter with additional support provided by Heidi Otway and the team at SalterMitchellPR.

If you need help telling your Florida story, SalterMitchellPR has you covered by offering issues management, crisis communication, social media, advocacy, and media relations assistance. You can learn more about SalterMitchellPR at saltermitchellpr.com. 

You can also learn more about the Fluent in Floridian podcast and listen to every episode of the show at fluentinfloridian.com or by searching for the show using your favorite podcast app. Have a great day.