McKinley says city must follow immigration law
By Teresa Sargeant
Reporter
Police Chief Michael McKinley and Fire Chief Wil Rivera-Sanchez spoke about their respective department structure and operations and how they interact with the community on various issues during the Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce’s April 1 Lunch and Learn at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Apopka.
While enjoying lunch, Chamber members got the opportunity to speak with both chiefs about community relations, including with the homeless population and undocumented immigrants, and briefly learned about the yet-to-be-constructed new public safety complex.
The Apopka Police Department is a full-service department that operates 24/7 and has 141 authorized officers, up from 92 a decade ago, according to McKinley. He said the department includes a dispatch, accreditation manager and a legal advisor, ensuring best practices.
McKinley briefly mentioned the city’s plan to build a public safety complex that will house both the fire and police departments. The public safety complex, which will also house the emergency communications center and information technology department, will be built close to the current Apopka Municipal Justice Building, where the police department is located, on East Sixth Street.
On April 2, the Apopka City Council was set to vote on approving a negotiated contract for construction manager at risk to H.J. High Construction for $338,382 plus a 10 percent contingency of $33,838, totaling $372,220. The complex’s design timeline is about 18 months followed by another 12 to 16 years for the project, McKinley said.
Integrated with emergency management service (EMS), the fire department currently has 146 employees, including 138 on shift, and operates six stations throughout the city. The fire department has a command staff overseeing fire prevention and EMS services, with two field inspectors checking business fire protection systems. All units are equipped with advanced life support (ALS) equipment, Rivera-Sanchez said.
According to Rivera-Sanchez, people have asked why the fire department sends a fire truck and an ambulance to emergency scenes.
“Time matters,” he responded, noting the average response time is six to eight minutes from the moment the 911 dispatch center receives a call.
“If anybody’s ever been trained in CPR, we know for every minute that goes by that nobody’s pumping on that chest, we’re losing about 10% survival chance,” Rivera-Sanchez said. “By having our equipment, as far as dually equipped, our fire trucks and our ambulance services, it doesn’t matter which truck is available, they’re going to come to you, then we get the proper transport units to actually transport.”
McKinley clarified that unlike what has been said on social media, Apopka police officers haven’t been directed to proactively arrest homeless people.
He said with the exception of new police officers who are still in training, all the officers have crisis intervention training for dealing with the mental health issues not only among the homeless but the community in general.
As for undocumented individuals, McKinley said the city must obey immigration laws or else face legal consequences that include up to a $5,000 fine and the loss of government public safety funds. If the city has to defend itself, it must do so with its own money, he said.
“We have to follow these laws, obviously, and it’s putting us in a bad position,” he said.
However, the city police are not going to violate anyone’s constitutional rights or could ask people “who looks Hispanic or is Hispanic” about their immigration status, McKinley said. If undocumented immigrants want to report a crime, they can still do so without law enforcement learning about their immigration status.
“What we don’t want them to become is victim to crime, because people think they’re afraid to report that crime to us,” McKinley said.
The Apopka Chief is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving the greater Apopka area in Central Florida since 1923.
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