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Daytona Beachside board hears police report; city to reinstate boardwalk bike unit after new officers finish training
Summary
Police briefed the Beachside Redevelopment Board on a switch from UCR to NIBRS reporting and recent CompStat figures; city staff said a class of 17 officers will allow reinstating a dedicated boardwalk bicycle patrol in April while panhandling enforcement remains constrained by a court injunction.
Daytona Beach police told the Beachside Redevelopment Board on Nov. 12 that the department is converting its crime reporting from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) hierarchy system to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), a change that counts each offense and has delayed publication of historical statistics while records are converted.
"Now we are actually going to a new system. It's called NIBRS," said an on-duty police representative, explaining the conversion and why some crime figures have not been publicly released during the transition. The same speaker gave the board the department’s most recent two-week CompStat figures, saying, "For the last 2 weeks, we had 474 calls for service. We wrote 68 reports, wrote 29 citations, made 14 felony arrests, 14 misdemeanor arrests. We towed 2 vehicles and had 34 traffic stops." The department described the period as a slower tourist season with persistent quality-of-life calls.
Peyton, speaking for police leadership, said the department expects to bolster patrol staffing in spring after a recent academy graduation. "Last month, I graduated a class of 17 new police officers," Peyton said. He said those officers will enter field training in December and should be deployed by early April. "So my goal is around April, early April, as soon as this class of 17 is deployed out, I'm bringing back that boardwalk unit," Peyton said, describing 12-hour bicycle shifts to patrol the Boardwalk, Ocean Avenue, Main Street and nearby corridors.
Board members and residents asked about enforcement of panhandling given a standing court injunction. Peyton and other police representatives said the city must proceed cautiously while outside counsel and federal/state roadway authorities (FDOT) are consulted. "We're still under the injunction, so we have to be very careful in how we...respond," Peyton said.
Public commenter John urged the board to consider supplementing police resources if necessary, noting historical local investments in policing. "We paid 1000000 dollars a year several years ago to have 5 police officers for the CRA," John said, and recommended a hybrid funding approach to help cover supplemental patrols.
The board approved last month’s minutes at the start of the meeting by voice vote.
What happens next: Police said it expects the newly graduated officers to finish field training and increase patrol staffing early next year; the city is awaiting outside counsel guidance on panhandling and is exploring FDOT routes for median enforcement. The board did not take additional formal action on policing at the Nov. 12 meeting.
