MIPD Focusing on “Big Four” Island Concerns

Interim Police Chief Joe Belardo is focusing on Marco’s hot-button issues.

"I call them my big four,” said Belardo. “Obviously, noise is one. Then you've got the beach. It's a big one. E-bikes are another one. And parking. There are always parking issues, but we try to address them the best that we can.”

Noise complaints are quieting down

"Noise was a big issue my first council meeting,” Belardo said. "We implemented a new protocol. Because one of the concerns is that all officers weren't handling noise complaints the same way. I worked with the team here and we came up with a protocol. Now every officer has a template they have to follow. Every single one gets handled the same way. We've seen enforcement go up based on that. And I think that people have been a lot happier with the response to noise complaints. And we're using the same ordinance we had before. We didn't change the ordinance at all. We just changed the way we enforce it. And that has seemed to improve the response, which is what everybody wanted. We're getting more compliance. One of the things that you'll find if we go to a residential noise complaint, the police officers are usually the ones to handle that only because you never know who you're going to interact with. I can tell you that when I worked nights for almost four years, almost every person I talked to when I went down to advise them of the noise were apologetic and a little embarrassed. I've never had anybody give me a hard time. Some people might have been like, 'I didn't realize it was that loud.' And as I explain the noise ordinance to them, they're like, ‘Oh, I'm sorry.' And then they'll comply. We've had a few places where we might get repeat calls. A lot of times when we get those, they'll get a citation. But the vast majority, we don't have to do all that because they comply right away and we normally don't have to go back.

"Our enforcement has gone up with noise complaints. The officers have been really good about following that protocol, standardizing our response to it, standardizing the way we collect the data, so we can keep an eye on what's working, what's not working. And I can tell you that I'm very happy with the way they're doing it. The officers that are working here recognize it's important to the people who live here. It's a quality of life issue. The officers have done a great job, especially recently, of following that protocol. I think that everybody's really kind of stepped up and it's been really good." 

Beach Patrol concentrating on turtle nesting season

"We were out on the beach every night, but right now we're in turtle nesting season. Every time we drive on the beach, there's a danger to the sea turtles. We have amber lights, but you can't really see very well with those. They're not very bright. So we had to back off a little bit. Now we do it three nights a week. Part of the enforcement has to do with lights from the condos. We've gotten much better compliance this year. If you go out on the beach now, you'll say it's darker than it's been in recent memory. So a lot of people are complying with the light ordinance. Much more than in the past. That goes back to enforcement. We want people to comply with our code. That's really what it comes down to. Compliance and enforcement go hand in hand because you can get people to comply sometimes with a warning. But sometimes enforcement is necessary. So we've written some notices of violation (NOV), but that just requires you to come into compliance. If it comes down to it, yes, the option of a citation is always there. But right now we've had a lot of luck getting people to comply with a warning and sometimes an NOV. Most people have been pretty good about that."

Land-based shark fishing has been a non-issue

“Obviously shark fishing is a protected activity,” he said. "We haven't had any violations when it comes to shark fishing. FWC has been down there making sure those fishing for sharks on the beach are complying with the state law. We haven't had any violations for quite a while. Most of our interactions on the beach have been sea turtle related. We haven't had any fishing violations. The only issues we really had on that beach in the last month or two have been folks from out of town who come out on the beach. Because there's a man-made object prohibition. You can't have certain manmade objects on the beach after 9 p.m. because of the sea turtles. We give them a warning and they take their stuff off the beach. We haven't had any issues with people violating state law or any of our codes. People have complied almost immediately when we've advised them. If you look at our code, we're required to give them a verbal warning on those before we issue any written warning at all. We have to give them a reasonable amount of time to comply. And almost everybody we've had has complied.

"But the fishing, they all have fishing licenses. They all have the shark attachments. They're following all the rules when it comes to that sort of thing. We're out there. If we see any violations, they'll be addressed, but we haven't had any violations in forever."

E-Bike warnings, citations

E-bikes have always been an issue,” Belardo said. “Our e-bike enforcement has been up. We've stopped a lot more e-bikes. You're going to stop more folks from out of town during season. But right now we've got a lot of people who are riding e-bikes because they ride them to work. So we tried to do a lot of education when we first did it. Now we’re getting a few more citations, especially if it's somebody who you've already warned once or twice. Obviously, you can't just keep warning people for the same stuff. But most of the time, the people that they're stopping it's for the first time. They are giving them written warnings, saying, ‘Hey, you got a warning, this is the issue. This is the thing that you're doing wrong.' For instance, if it's at night and you don't have a light on your bike, that sort of thing. The vast majority of people we're stopping for the first time, we're warning them. But if we get a repeat offender, we're probably not going to warn them, we're going to give them a citation. It goes back to knowing it's important to people. They know that it’s an issue that people are concerned about. So they're focusing on it. These guys are going out every single day and they know what's important. And that's what I always tell them. I say, ‘Look, this is what is important to the people who live here. This is who we serve.' And they all agree. I've had great cooperation from all of them. And I'll tell you, they're all out doing the stuff I need them to do on the big four that I always focus on."