Winter Park Police Department marks turnover in force

The Winter Park Police Department has promoted its third deputy chief in six months, part of a wave of high-ranking officers who have recently departed or announced their imminent retirement.

Retiring Deputy Chief Jess Johnson was honored on Friday by the Winter Park Police Department for his 30 years of service on the police force. Johnson originally joined the department in 1985, becoming a member of the Winter Park Police SWAT team the next year and serving as an officer and supervisor there for 12 years.

In 1988, Johnson was named as the department’s officer of the year and would later join the narcotics unit in 1989, where he and his partner made the largest heroin bust in Central Florida at the time.

Johnson was also responsible for finding new and innovative ways of videotaping street-level drug transactions, which were used throughout the state of Florida.

“Jess has stepped up to the plate and has been steadfast in his devotion to the mission of our agency,” Police Chief Brett Railey said. “He’s helped lay the groundwork to springboard our agency into the future.”

Johnson gave an emotional farewell to his fellow officers.

“Time flies when you’re having fun, and the last 30 years have just flown by,” Johnson said. “It’s all because of the family that we have here in the department and the community.”

Railey formally promoted 27-year veteran Cpt. Vern Taylor as the city’s new deputy chief during the same ceremony, adding that Taylor brings tremendous leadership and communication skills to his new role.

“Vern has been a confidant, a friend and a trusted advisor to me over the past six years,” Railey said. “He’s been supportive at times when lesser men would have taken the easy way out, but Vern chose to take that road less traveled. Today he’s being rewarded for his leadership.”

With his recent promotion Taylor solidified his place in Winter Park history, already becoming the highest ranked African-American police officer in the city’s history when he was named captain in 2009.

“I’d like to say that I’m truly blessed and honored to be entrusted to the position of deputy chief of the Winter Park Police Department,” Taylor said. “As with my former predecessors Jess [Johnson] and Art King, I look to follow in their footsteps.”

The Winter Park Police Force has seen several changes in leadership over the first half of this year. Former Deputy Chief Art King retired in March after more than 30 years of service in the department. Johnson was named as his replacement before retiring last week.

“I don’t know what it says about working for me when in the space of five months I will have had three Deputy Chiefs,” Railey said jokingly.

Winter Park will see more changes in leadership next year, with Taylor retiring in April and Railey retiring by Aug. 1.

The shifting of head officers comes during a time of fluctuating crime trends in the city. Overall crime dropped by 14.2 percent in 2009, with a total of 1,160 crimes, according to records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Crime continued to drop another 18.4 percent over the next two years until it shot up by 32 percent in 2012, reaching 1,250 crimes. Last year saw a slight reduction with 1,185 crimes.

While crime has gone up and down, the overall number of officers in Winter Park has seen a steady decline. The total number of officers has slowly dropped from 91 officers in 2008 to 77 today, Railey said.

But Friday also saw three other officers receive promotions of their own. Officer Jeff Hershone was named a sergeant, Sgt. Bruce Robinson was promoted to lieutenant, and Lt. Jon Askins was named one of two captains in the Winter Park Police Department.

Railey said that each officer has at least 15 years of police experience, and that the future looks bright for the leadership within the Winter Park Police Department.

“I’m excited,” Railey said. “What a lot of people don’t understand is that the people that I’ve promoted aren’t rookies.”

“They know the community of Winter Park. They know the level of service that the citizens expect and they know what the police department expects them to deliver. They’re well-positioned to lead into the future.”