Police trying to defeat push for FM review board

The president of the local Police Benevolent Association on Monday said his group will go door-to-door to defeat a petition drive organized to get a proposed police review board on the ballot in Fort Myers.

Cecil Pendergrass, a Fort Myers police corporal and the head of the PBA's Gulf Coast chapter, said his organization will ask residents who have already signed the petition to request that their names be withdrawn.

He accused its sponsors of trying to mislead and inflame the public by spreading half-truths.

The issue has been contentious in the city with the Florida Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union joining forces with local activist Anthony Thomas Jr. and his Citizens for a Better Fort Myers Government in an effort to get the question before the voters.

Thomas said his group has gathered 1,600 signatures. Election officials have said 2,500 are needed to get the issue on a special election ballot.

Pendergrass said Thomas and his supporters are trying to get a special election by false pretenses.

"They have put out a letter accusing the police department of beating people and calling us murderers," he said. "This is not only false, but it drives a wedge between the police department and the community."

Pendergrass said he has filed a complaint with state election officials insisting the statements put forward by the petition drive's organizers should invalidate the signatures already gathered.

"You can't get people to sign under false pretenses," he said.

The allegations drew this brief assertion from Thomas:

"That's laughable. This is nothing more than the police union saying they don't want accountability. We welcome them into the debate."

While the police department and the city council have opposed past efforts for a civilian review board, that stance has changed somewhat.

Police Chief Hilton C. Daniels recently embraced an Institute for Law and Justice survey of his department that recommended the creation of a police-citizen advisory board.

But that panel, which would be appointed by the mayor, council and police chief, falls short of the elected review board Thomas and the ACLU want.

That board, which would also have subpoena authority, would have more than advisory powers. It would have the authority to compel answers, Howard L. Simon, the executive director of the Florida ACLU Chapter, said.

"This is nothing more than a dirty trick to keep the people of Fort Myers from voting," Simon said.

"When the police insist on policing themselves and shutting out the public from effective oversight, that is a warning sign that something is very wrong."