MCSO works to keep all events in the Keys safe

Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.

MCSO was very involved in making sure everything was safe for the Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride this weekend.

Sheriff Ramsay said, “We love this event. Friday started the Wounded Warrior Soldier Ride throughout the Keys. So many people involved to make this happen. It’s so important that we show support for these veterans who have sacrificed their lives and safety and are trying to recover from catastrophic injuries. It’s just nice to spend time with these soldiers, talk to them, listen to them, hear their stories. We started in Key Largo about the 103 mile marker at 8:30 in the morning, and the sheriff’s office has got a really big role. We have to make sure 40 something riders are safe and secure while making sure traffic still flows and we have the least impact as possible on the traffic. But as we’re going down the road, we take the outside lane for the soldiers. We keep the inside lane open for through traffic. See the lines of people on the side of the road waving and cheering, holding flags and clapping for the soldiers. It’s so heartwarming. What a great trip through Key Largo, Islamorada, several stops there and stopping at the school for the kids. You’re going to Marathon firehall, where you have a great lunch setup for them there. On the way to Key West, our friends in Key West Police do such a great job in the city to keep them safe and secure. Saturday, they go to DRC, spend time with the dolphins, and I tell you, they love the Keys. They see the support from the Keys. They see the love from the Keys. This is always one of the favorite stops for the Soldier Ride to be in Monroe when they see how supportive this community is to our military and our injured soldiers. So we’re just glad to be part of this great event and make sure that they’re safe and secure.”

Michael Halpern’s memorial was also on Saturday.

Sheriff Ramsay said, “A lot of events this weekend, some sad and some positive fun. Michael Halpern was a great community leader. I was down there for that event to celebrate his life, but we also had a celebration of life for Master Chief King. Jim King passed away. A celebration of life this weekend. A celebration of life in the Upper Keys, for retired lieutenant from the sheriff’s office. Bill Moran passed away. Also a celebration life for Pat Schmitt, Brian Schmitt’s mother. So this weekend, I had four celebrations of life. I was only able to make two of them, but a lot of great community leaders that we have to remember and honor them and their memory legacy.”

The Celtic Festival in Marathon over the weekend can be tricky for MSCO.

Sheriff Ramsay said, “It was difficult, challenging event for the Sheriff’s Office. With so much traffic and pedestrians crossing right there in front of 39th Street, we saw the sheriff’s office set up with tents, cones throughout the weekend, trying to keep traffic flowing, but yet make sure we can safely cross all these pedestrians to and from this event, and have staff at the event to make sure it’s safe and secure. We have a strong, visible presence. The event went off without a hitch. There was no safety concerns, no issues, no altercations. My team members did a great job, internal and external of the event to make sure that all pedestrians are safe. They were crossed, no car crashes occurred there. So we’ve got that pretty honed in. I was just really proud of them, what they do each and every year and each and every day out there. We’re again proud to be part of that and make sure these events we have all over county are always safe and secure.”

An AR 15 was being discharged recently and the people are being held accountable.

Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is down in Little Torch area, off of Pirates Road. We got a call from a resident who indicated they had gunshot holes in their house and through their windows. We went out and we can clearly see what looks like rifle rounds went through this double pane glass. As we’re there, we heard three gunshots go off, bam, bam, bam. Pretty close. Officers then track down the location where these rounds were discharged from. We found three individuals, one holding an AR 15, 223-caliber rifle. In the backyard they had a gun range set up, cans and bottles and various stuff to shoot at. So these three were in this backyard, illegally shooting a rifle, and the rounds were leaving the property, going into another property, going into a house. So after the investigation, we ultimately did arrest all three for illegally discharging weapon, and seized the weapon. In a bigger area where you’ve got acres and acres of property, it’d be okay to have an outdoor gut range with some type of berm set up safely, but in a small residential community, you can’t stop these rounds from going long distances and potentially killing somebody, or here going through people’s homes. That’s why the laws have determined a certain size of property before you can discharge a weapon and if you discharge a weapon, it has to remain on that property, cannot leave the property for this exact reason. How scary is this? To have rounds striking through your house? We’re lucky someone didn’t get killed.”

A Big Pine, Florida, resident was arrested for fleeing the police recently.

Sheriff Ramsay said, “This really started as a complaint from a citizen about a vehicle that was driving recklessly, doing burnouts, was the erratic driving was not staying in his lane. So we had a BOLO, be on the lookout, and we identified the vehicle and the vehicle was driving erratic. We conducted a traffic stop or tried to, and when we tried to stop the truck, it turned into a pursuit for about a mile, a high speed chase. Eventually, the motorist came to a sudden stop right in the middle of the highway, stopped in the road, wouldn’t obey commands, wouldn’t get out of the car, and it turned into a little scuffle. We had to eventually distract the person from the car. The motorist was intoxicated, so ultimately, we did arrest this person for DUI and the resisting charge. So we always thank our motorists, our public who call us when they see strange behavior or dangerous behavior. They’re our eyes and ears which help us do our job to be efficient and effective. We always say the citizens are an extension of the sheriff’s office. So we did get this motorist off the road before he hurt or killed himself or hurt or killed somebody else. But we see this is just poor decisions. You’re intoxicated, that’s why you’re making poor decisions to do burnouts and drive stupid and not follow commands and flee from police because under the influence, you can’t make rational decisions, exactly why you shouldn’t be operating a motor vehicle. So just part of the job of a law enforcement officer dealing with intoxicated people who are stupid and trying to keep our community safe and working closely with our citizens to identify problems and solve those problems.”

MCSO is conducting high visibility enforcement to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety.

Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is being headed up by my traffic enforcement sergeant. This is important. We have so many bikes down here because the weather is so perfect, and people are on vacation and riding bikes that per capita with the number of bikes, and the road doesn’t have a whole lot of bike pass, they’re hit and miss, which make it harder that bikes are sometime on the roads. We are dealing with a lot of E bikes, which are very frustrating for our motorists, because legislation has not kept up with the change in these type of vehicles, that there really is not a lot of legislation to regulate these type of bikes, but we are trying to be out there with a strong, visible presence, an education front and enforcement where need be. Our goal is not to write a bunch of tickets, unless we have to, but try to inform, educate and identify problems and try to solve them. If we have to, at times, use enforcement actions and cite people if we need to, but we have to try to be part of the solution, and try to make whatever efforts you can to mitigate the impacts of potential crashes with bikes versus vehicle. We know a vehicle versus bicycle, we know who’s going to win every time. It’s going to be the vehicle. We know who’s going to lose – it’s going to be a bicycle or pedestrian. So difficult and challenging, but we’re doing everything we can to try to mitigate these disasters.”

A sex offender recently provided a false address.

Sheriff Ramsay said, “We do the best we can to give our citizens notice of these sexual offenders where they’re residing on our app so people can know, especially if you have kids or children, and as well, they’re required to give us their current address and the sheriff’s office does proactive stuff with that too. We go out and do checks to make sure they’re still living there, make sure these addresses are current, make sure they haven’t moved so we know where they’re at and that’s how these things come up, is when they are not there, or we find that they moved, we take action against those people and charge them because it’s important that we know where these sexual offenders are to try to keep our community safe and secure. Just another thing the sheriff’s office does, trying to be proactive and trying to do everything we can to mitigate disasters within our community.”