Key West Police Chief Sean Brandenburg joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
The KWPD served two search warrants recently.
Chief Brandenburg said, “Actually, one turns into two turns into three sometimes. So the first one was on February 2. We had a search warrant that we executed on one Christopher Eugene Valdez, he’s very familiar to law enforcement in the area, and we were actually looking for a custom knife that he had stolen, or we suspected he had stolen from a transient rental unit just prior to his arrest. While we were searching for the custom knife, though, we located a large amount of jewelry, including high end watches and gems that were related to other burglaries in months prior to that search warrant. Unfortunately, because we had only put the knife in the first search warrant, we had to go back and get a second search warrant for the residence. It’s not like you see on TV. It’s not just a quick, one page deal, and you take it and a judge signs it, and you’re back in 15 minutes. It’s an extensive document that the detectives have to put together, and then they take it to the state and then after the state approves it, we take it to a judge for approval, for signature. But we did go through all those steps and went back, seized a large quantity of what we believe to be stolen items. As late as last Friday, we were still going through previous burglaries, trying to attach the items that we had recovered from Mr. Valdez’s residence to those burglaries, back to the last time he was incarcerated. Because it doesn’t take long after he gets out of jail before he goes right back to his old ways of breaking into both local residences as well as guest houses. And just to give you an idea of Mr. Valdez has been collectively sentenced to over 40 years of incarceration from 1990 to 2024 so he is a frequent flyer. He is not out for long before he goes back.”
These kind of investigations involve a lot of inter agency cooperation.
Chief Brandenburg said, “Absolutely. In a search warrant we executed two days ago involved not only detectives from the Key West Police Department Special Issue investigations unit, but also our friends at DEA Homeland Security investigators and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, as well as our special response team executing this search warrant and going into a residence and securing it. And this stemmed from complaints of suspected drug activity in the area and during the search warrant, detectives did locate another four and a half grams of powder cocaine, as well as several items of paraphernalia that contained methamphetamine residue. The occupant was the owner of all the recovered cocaine and methamphetamine. He was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine with an intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia. We could not do this without the assistance of our citizens. Everything from telling us about complaints like this in their neighborhood, or when a crime does occur in their neighborhood, the citizen’s ability to share videos with us, it seems like every house has a Ring doorbell or security cameras of some sort, and that information can be invaluable in our investigation, even if you’re a block away from where it happened, we can put together the timetable of the criminal activity and who was in the neighborhood and put the suspect in the neighborhood where the crime occurred. And that just makes it a strong case for us when we do go to court.”
Technology like doorbell cameras can be a real help.
Chief Brandenburg said, “Our last homicide that we investigated, through the cooperation of businesses and citizens around town, we were actually able to trace the three suspects from the approach to the crime scene and then fleeing from the crime scene. And through technology, we were able to piece all those pieces of video together, and that played an important role in the prosecution of them when it got to that point, but with this video and this evidence, we were able to hold those that were responsible accountable.”
Canine police officers also help.
Chief Brandenburg said, “Our two new canines are out and about. Canine Drax, so for those people that are fans of Guardians of the Galaxy, Drax is named after someone from Guardians of the Galaxy, and then we have Dagger that’s out there as well, both new German Shepherds, so we are getting these dogs up to par. I think Drax has already had at least one successful search that resulted in the recovery of narcotics, and I’m sure Matt has had something with Dagger as well. We wouldn’t have been able to get Drax and Dagger if it wasn’t for the generosity of a local citizen that stepped forward after our two old canines passed away unexpectedly, Jigsaw even more so, that was a medical emergency that was unexpected at young age, but we had a local citizen step forward and donate the money to purchase two new canines. So thank you to them.”
Recruits are also needed.
Chief Brandenburg said, “The recruits that started way back in May of last year completed the academy to build that relationship. The Sheriff’s Department and the Key West Police Department go through the same academy together. So from day one, we work together as one big team in trying to keep our community safe. And the new recruits are in their final stage of FTO. This is what we call the shadow phase. It’ll be two weeks, and instead of having two officers riding around in the car in uniform, you’ll have one officer in uniform, and one officer in plain clothes and that plain clothes officer is the trainer, and he’s just he or she is just there to ensure that nothing goes wrong or no mistakes are made, while the new officer moves through whatever calls they assign to them and make sure that that is all executed properly and the documentation is all done correctly. So last two weeks for them, they’re in their home stretch, and then they’ll be out on the road. I can tell you, activity on traffic stops has been way up. So it’s a very educational time for individuals driving around the city, and for anybody that’s been driving around the city, there are plenty of people that want our attention to give them some lessons in the proper etiquettes of driving around the city of Key West. So we’ve been introducing ourselves to them quite a bit, but they’re in the home stretch, and then they’ll be out on their own soon.”
How many openings per year does the police department have?
Chief Brandenburg said, “They did a study on the number of officers that have either retired or moved on over the last five years. A lot of those over the last five years have been through retirement. And we’re not expecting anyone to be retiring anytime soon, but we are looking at probably this academy doing somewhere around five or six, and the last academy, we did eight. So it just depends on how many openings we have at the time of the academy. And then what that attrition rate looks like down the road. Now, in a few years, a lot of those retirements are going to be coming to their final days, and so we will need to plan accordingly and get officers to take those senior officer spaces as they retire. There’s a link on the city’s web page. You can contact officer Danyle Gray at the Key West Police Department. You can call her, you can email her. As a recruiting officer, that’s one of her main duties. Since January 1, it’s 2.3 million views on our police department recruiting page on Facebook, and that’s all pretty much officer Danyle Gray. She is self taught, so I don’t know what her secret is, either. People are extremely interested in what we’re doing. And speaking of which, as far as what the secret is, I did go to the Florida Police Chiefs Association Conference here last month, and I did do a class on recruiting. It is nice to sit in a class and hear other agencies talk about how they’re using what you’ve been using for the last couple of years, and how they’re finally figuring out that that’s the way to recruit people. So our way, I guess, is catching on around the state as far as how to recruit and how to get good qualified people.”
There has been a reduction in crime recently.
Chief Brandenburg said, “I had to sit down talk with our lieutenant over detectives about why this spike in burglaries was occurring, because I do get monthly reports on the crime trends in the city and where we’re going, and there was a noticeable spike in the burglaries. And that’s when Mr. Valdez became quite the target of interest. I think they were up to at least five burglaries that he was responsible for, that we can prove and that he will be charged with. The sheriff and I go by the same philosophy, the Keys should be a safe place to live, work and visit, and we try every day, to make sure that we continue those efforts.”