April 17, 2025 • 21 mins
Chief Ceccarelli joins us to talk about illegal immigration, scams that are targeting residents of the Village of Palm Springs, the latest update on construction of a police station expansion and another Coffee with a Cop event.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcolm for WJ and O dot com and
(00:02):
protecting the Palm Beaches. And we check in with Palm
Springs Police Chief Tom Checarelli. Always always good of him
to join us for protecting the Palm Beaches and we
appreciate uh you making the rounds again.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Sir, welcome, thanks for having me again.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
We have several topics to talk about. Let's talk about scams.
Every time you and I talk, we talk about scams,
and every so often there's a nuance to some of
the older ones and then a new one. And you
and I were just talking and we're getting hit by
some of the same ones right now with the with
the text messages. Yeah, first of all, let's go over
some of those and then just give, you know, give
(00:38):
the best advice you can coming from the law enforcement side.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You know, it's something that's never gonna end. You know,
our crime rates kind of stabilizing right now, but it
seems like this sponto a way. I know, we're constantly
getting the texts I know from the toll violations, and
that one seems to be very prevalent right now. Even
though you know, when you notice when you get the
message from someone that's a very odd address that's coming from.
(01:04):
That should be like your first clue. But you know
they're mentioning sun Pass specifically. Some people you know very gullible,
so they link onto that. Or you have the ones
from the random texts and they asked you for working
from home, or a lot of times he's turned into
you accepting a check from someone to the positive and
then you find out it's a fake check. And it's
(01:27):
a myriad of scams going on right now, but a
lot of them going through texts.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, that is they are. Remember back in the day
it used to be emails and you'd get the almost
at Norwegian, the Nigerian prints.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, everyone knew about that one. We had one recently.
Someone got a text or a message from WhatsApp and
claiming they were the US Marshal. They had a warrant
for the person's arrest. You know, they end up doing
a video call. The person had the US Marshall's logo
behind them. The person the victim ends up sending, ends
(02:05):
up going to ATM. A couple of ATMs gets about
fifteen thousand dollars out, positives the money to a Bitcoin
account and ends up losing losing all the money on
that one. But it just it starts as a what's
up call? They're they're you know, duped into believing they
have a warrant and the uh, I don't know why
unless you you know, maybe you had done something wrong
(02:27):
you're worried about, but you know, you never dine anything wrong.
You shouldn't worried about, you know, having to pay a warrant.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And yeah, and there's one Martin County Sheriff's warning about
is it is it? I guess there's a nuance to
that with the big coins. And they're saying it's happening
in Palm Beach too. Uh. And they're saying, you know,
it's it is the warrant situation, and it's similar to
the jury jury duty you know, uh situation. What is that?
(02:59):
Is that happening to you? Sometimes they'll give some of
these things. They'll call and they'll give names. They'll say,
I'm deputy or I'm officers such and such. Has that
ever happened with regards.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
That, Oh, that happens not a lot. But we have
gotten calls from the victim to say, Hey, I'm just
checking the do you have this you know? Or I
was called by this sergeant and officer and we'll verify
that it's not them. That's that's happened a few times.
And the reason they're using bitcoin, you know, because it's
just not a traceful transaction. So once it's also like
(03:32):
when you get the gift cards, you go to Walgreens
or CVS or targeting by those gift cards and you
give them the numbers to the gift cards and the
money goes and there's no real tracing of the of
the funds.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And with this latest one, I guess they're also pushing
for gold bars in addition to I didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
See that recently.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I haven't.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We haven't had anything like that, but I have seen
that one.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But my question about the bitcoins is, you know, oftentimes
we hear about these scams targeting the I'm fifty five,
I'm not elderly. I don't have the first clue about
how to deal with bitcoin. I mean, are they are
they targeting the elderly with the bitcoin situation? The gift
cards I understand, but maybe they maybe they're going to
bitcoin now because like you said, it's untraceable and the
(04:17):
gift cards. Now people are getting wise to would be victims,
you know, because you walk into CVS or Walgreens and
first thing, even public's first thing you see by the
by the gift cards is don't you know, don't fall
for a scam kind of situation. But I mean, yeah,
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
No, yeah, that's true. I mean the gift cards. Even
though they put the signs up in the you know,
the different stores, people still still fall victim to that.
We had one, I think we had one where it
was an elderly person was targeted and they ended up
going to pick them up. They sent a driver to
pick them up at their residents to drive them to
(04:54):
a bank to the positive funds and they end up
having to pay for the uber driver that took them
to the uh the bank.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, I think you had told us about that last time.
All right, So the the biggest advice is is, you know,
I guess you know, police aren't going to reach out
about a warrant, right if you're if somebody has a
warrant out, you're just going to get arrested.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, yeah, you're gonna get arrested. We're not gonna call
and we're not gonna we're not going to ask if
you gift cards or bit coins or any of that stuff.
You know, just just watch for you know, you get
this call from the Security Department or I R S
demanding money, or you have the Liverpool package or any
random message, just really stop and think about it. And
(05:38):
what we do is we tell the elderly is you know,
do you think it might be a scanner? You a question,
Call call loved one or call you know, call us
and we'll decipher the message for you.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Uh. Let's talk about illegal immigration, and I know it's
it can be an uncomfortable, uh topic for law enforcement
because obviously you're in the middle of you know, with
the Trump administration and it's you know, demands at this
point from the federal level, and you have ICE, Immigrations
and Customs enforcement out and about, and I know we
(06:11):
have had them in our area and our communities. So
what is you know, what is your side of what
what is it your officers are supposed to do or
not supposed to do?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Right now, nothing's really changed for us at this point
because I know they want to create a task force
for officers all over the country to become certified as
as an ICE agency, so to say, we've done this
years before. With other federal departments where we've been almost
deputized as being a acting on behalf of that federal
(06:46):
agency like Customs whatever, do work, but it still has
to be coordinated through that agency. But until that happens,
we're still following the same protocol we have. If we
have someone that we suspect of being here legally, will
contact ICE and they'll have to respond. We can't really
legally hold on to someone based on like it's a
(07:08):
civil warrant. Really it's not a criminal warrant at this point.
So unless something's criminal, or we arrest somebody for something
that's criminal and they also are here illegally, then we
can you know, when we go to county jail we
put a detainer on well, they'll put a detainer on
them based on that. But right now it's basically just
encounter the person, contact ICE. If we have someone a
border patrol and they they'll respond. But until we you
(07:33):
train or certified that we can do it, that's kind
of where the ball sitting right now.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Well, and you don't and correct me if' wrong. You
don't have officers actively going out looking for people that
might be here illegally, right, they're just looking for people
breaking out actual laws of you know that somebody would
break here.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yes, we're we're not actively looking at for anyone like that.
We are we're looking for criminals. We're looking for the
regular criminals. But if you know, it's as if someone
here is a criminal and they're illegal, then you know
we can take action. But right now there's some laws
that have come to the state to empower us to
do that. But I know there's some they're fighting in
(08:13):
federal court right now. There's I think a judge blocked
one one of the orders that deals with empowering local
law enforcement. I think there's another one that passed the
law that allows for detention at county jails, but right
now it's being tested to the court system.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And and so I mean essentially in the message that
we've gotten. We've spoken with Sheriff Bradshaw on each county
sheriff multiple times on this situation, and you know, his
his word is that you know, he's not Ice. Ice
is in charge of all of this. If he gets
if if one of his deputies picks up somebody for
a crime, not not regarding being in the country illegally,
(08:52):
but a crime theft, violence whatnot, and ICE contacts them,
they will hold on to that person for ICE. Is
it's essentially the same thing.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, exactly, that's exactly it. If we encounter someone who's
we're already investigating for criminal violation or investigation and we
found that they're here legally, that's that's something we've always done.
That's something we do when I was on the road
many years ago. But until this law plays out in
the in the courts and you know, being appealed and
(09:29):
things like that, we're kind of in a state of limbo,
or until they train the law enforcement in Florida through
the federal agencies to empower us. But that still hasn't
happened yet.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So what exactly, if A is your understanding of the
law that's being challenged in the courts.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I know there was a federal judges is blocked that
I think out of Miami over the fact that local
law enforcement can be empowered through state statute to enforce
immigration laws. And I think the question is can you
empower local law enforcement act on a for a federal
level like that.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So that's being challenged by by you know, the side
that doesn't doesn't want law enforcement involved in local law
enforcement involved in immigration issues.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I don't know who brought it forth, but someone brought
probably a fourth to suit to appeal it in court,
and I guess it's at one level. Now we're judged
to say whether a kind of state allow us to
do that. So, you know, we you know, we wait
to see how this all plays out in the courts,
you know, because no one wants to get sued for
taking any action that you know, we don't want to
violate anyone's civil rights either until we have full you know,
(10:45):
empowerment by either state stature or a federal federal law,
or through empowering us through the FEDS to enact or
take take action on these incidents.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So the tensions are up over the illegal immigrats situation
for people on both sides of the issue. I don't
know anybody that's you know, that's for illegal immigration, but
you know, some people unhappy with the way the Trump
administration's carrying things out. Some people unhappy over Doge and
(11:17):
what they're doing, and uh they've been taking it out
on the Tesla dealers and uh individual tesla's And I
understand there was a situation involving your your department has
a Tesla as one of its cruisers. Is that the case?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
No, no, no, it was a it was a call
we handled.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Oh it wasn't the department, It was somebody's.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah we didn't. We thought about buying Tesla's years ago.
But they're a little too tight inside there for as
a police vehicle.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Kind of pricey too, right, I mean, how would you?
How would you? Especially we're talking about the cyber trucks,
this Tesla cyber truck, I should have mentioned. I don't
know the price of them, but I'm guessing, based on
the fact that they're a Tesla, uh, that they were
kind of pricey. I could imagine, you know, being telling taxpayers, yeah,
we're going to buy a bunch of these. Well might
(12:06):
you might have some uproar over it.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
It was a few years ago that agencies were buying
the smaller I figured which model they were using as
police vehicles, and there was a push for a little while.
I don't know if they still are. I know a
lot of agencies are looking at electric vehicles still limitation.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Of their use though, so so with the cyber truck.
This is a resident of Palm Springs and somebody vandalized it.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, they were at a business. They parked a cyber
truck in front of the Tesla truck in front of
a business, and while they were inside, someone came out
and spray painted it a black mark across it. Nothing,
just a line. And then you know, they checked the
cameras that you know, they end up tracing the person
back because they're full of cameras. I don't know why
anyone would, you know, committed vandalism knowing that they're going
(12:56):
to be film throughout it. But you know this this
person did it. We end up trade sent it back
to the person and it was an elderly man, probably
in the seventies that we questioned. Me just said, hey,
you know, I've seen everyone else doing this. You know,
I thought, you know, I would do it too. So
is he but he apologized afterwards.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well he apologized, but he still committed a crime. Is
he facing a charge?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yes? Yeah, I think I'm trying to think if I
think the victim, I'm not sure if they want to prosecute,
but yeah, they he's still facing a charge for that.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
What would that be it just vandalism or what would be.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, criminal mischief, vandalism yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Wow, a little misguided, huh.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Not worth it. I know people with the tensions of
high right now, everyone is really on edge, and you know,
it's everyone needs to take a breath out there on
both sides and just you know, kind of.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, get I get so right.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I could tell people don't get round of it, but
they you know, it's it's unfortunately these days it's on
both sides. It's getting very very heated.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Construction update. I know you're you're is it refreshment memory?
Are you having the entire station rebuilt or is it
just a it's an expansion now now I remember, right, yes, is.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
The expansion In fact that I wasn't sure if you
could hear the noise out there, but you said you couldn't.
But they're actively working right now demolishing offices. We're adding
another building onto our building and it's going to be
connected in the front. But we're doubling the size of
the PD. We've unfortunately with a lot of government buildings,
you know, based on limited funding, when you build them,
(14:28):
they pretty much outsize them very quickly. So within a
few years we outsize this one. And now we're doubling
the size of the agency. It's a two story structure
in front of it, and we're having One of the
nice things we're going to have is adding a community
training room, which is going to be right off a lobby,
so we can have community events here. We can have
community meetings with the public, Soviet opportunity for the community
(14:50):
to come in and meet with us in a much
nicer environment here, and a well, you know, suited facility.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
When what is the ETA on this, they're.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Saying before Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
You don't sound confident.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
No, no, I'm telling you. It's going off faster than
I thought. And the shell is almost complete. They're going
to put the roof on probably in two to three weeks,
and then they'll start finishing up the inside, which should
take some time. But we're also renovating interior the PD
now of our existing building. So that's why I've asst
(15:26):
this office is getting demolished.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Right now so once and you may not have this
info on hand, I apologize if you don't. But how
many thousands of square feet once they're done, will will
will encompass the Palm Springs PD well.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Right now, the existing building is fourteen thousand square feet
and this two story structure will be another fourteen thousands,
or essentially doubling the size of the agency.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
So twenty eight thousand square feet. Yes, all right.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
The other thing, the other thing I wanted to talk about,
I forgot one of the issues we're having right now.
I was with bicycle thefts, especially like e bikes. It's,
you know, just as a message out to everyone, please
lock your e bike up. I know a lot of
people go to like stores and they'll just sleep them
out front on you know, secured, and we're beginning a
lot of those stones. So if you can put the
(16:19):
message out please, if even if from there in a
few minutes, make lock it up, chain it up, do something.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
How many of these how many thefts have you had
within the past few weeks, I'd.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Say a couple of week, okay. And they're not cheap.
And they're not cheap, you know, because e bikes are
even though there's some bicycles out there get very expensive.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
But it's fairly new technology for folks that don't understand.
It's they're electronic bikes, so their bicycles, but they actually
have little motors. I'm like, not really motors are there.
I guess when you think of motors. You think of
something that takes but it is. They're electrical motors. They
do they not have a key or something? I mean,
if you just left it there, can somebody just will
it move? Do you need a key or how did
(16:59):
they operate? I've never never tried one.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
It depends on the bike. I can tell you my
my daughter's up at college right now and she has
one of those scooters and that's been stolen off her twice.
And she's even locked it up. She chained it up
and you know, I gave her a good chain, but
sometimes it's not locked as well as it should be.
But she's lost that or has it has had it
stolen twice. But that's a common occurrence of collegist too. Wow,
(17:25):
she with her what's that?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
She said, the same one stolen and returned. Ords you've
gotten she got another one and then ed got stolen.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Well, it's funny because the first time it was stolen,
she calls me in the middle of the night and says,
you know, my scooter got stolen. And I said, well,
did you call the police? And she goes, what are
they going to do?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Did you call the police? She said, I'm doing that right, now.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
What do you think I'm doing? So I said, did
you call the police? She goes, what are they gonna do?
I said, well, maybe they could track it based on
the Apple air tag I put in it, and she goes,
oh yeah. So then she ends up finding the next
morning abandoned and then get to stolen again and find
it the next morning abandoned. But based on an air attack,
she was able to find it. And you know, I
told her, maybe Dad's not as dumb as you think
(18:11):
he is.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Oh, what do you think to somebody? I know it's
just kind of conjecture, but is somebody is it a prank?
You think if somebody's just taken it and kind of
abandoning it, is that.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I think the first time, you know in college is
there's a million scooters and bikes, and I know there's
a common occurrence gets so stolen. Sometimes somebody needs a
ride and they grab it. I think the second time
they wanted to keep it because you could see they
damaged where they thought they were going after the GPS
device but they couldn't find it.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I think that time they were going to try to
start to keep it. But the first time I think
it was just to go from one place to another.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Wow, all right, and then one more coffee with a
cop coming up May twelfth, This is a Monday. Tell
me about first of all, tell me about this event
and tell me what the what is the goal of
these events?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
We do these on a frequent basis. We go to
local coffee shops. This one's going to be in a Starbucks.
But you know, we put over our banners about what
we do. We have officers that we have some giveaways.
It's basically an opportunity for the public to come out
and meet us, talk in a more friendly environment, discuss
whatever they want to discuss. And it's really it's a
(19:27):
good opportunity just for the public to to talk to
an officer and you know, a good environment or friendly environment.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So how does it work? Am I? Am I paying
full freak for a couple of Starbucks?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, you still got to pay, but you know the
bonuses you get to talk to an officer.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Well, that's always that's always good. God forbid, there's a
hold up while you're there, and somebody's dumb enough to
do that when they see a bunch of people in
the uniforms.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Uh yeah, no, that would be that would be a
very not smart thing to do.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
You have a lot of protection there are. Yeah. So
this is Starbucks where.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
It's the one on Forest Yll Boulevard out by Military
trail right on Forest Hill. It's just the eastern Military.
It's forty three eighty Forest Hill. It'll be on May twelfth,
between round nine to eleven, we'll be there.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
That must be just inside your jurisdiction, right, because I'm
guessing west of Military is no longer or am I wrong?
It's no longer Palm Springs. No, you're right.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
We military is our western border. Our eastern border is
probably a little bit like Florida Mango. They right around
Florida Mango. It kind of juts in and out. But
those are our north, west and east borders, all.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Right, nine to eleven Monday, May twelfth. Coffee with the cops, Starbucks,
Forest Hill and Military. Anything else for we wrap up.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I think that's it all right.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Well, I do appreciate always you taking the time and
speaking with us here and getting this important information out
to our listeners. And whether or not you're a resident
of Palm Springs, always good to hear from you. Tom Checkarelli,
Police Chief Village of Palm Springs here for protecting the
palm beaches.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Thanks a lotch good talking to you.
Hey, Joel Malcolm for WJ and O dot com and
(00:02):
protecting the Palm Beaches. And we check in with Palm
Springs Police Chief Tom Checarelli. Always always good of him
to join us for protecting the Palm Beaches and we
appreciate uh you making the rounds again.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Sir, welcome, thanks for having me again.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
We have several topics to talk about. Let's talk about scams.
Every time you and I talk, we talk about scams,
and every so often there's a nuance to some of
the older ones and then a new one. And you
and I were just talking and we're getting hit by
some of the same ones right now with the with
the text messages. Yeah, first of all, let's go over
some of those and then just give, you know, give
(00:38):
the best advice you can coming from the law enforcement side.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
You know, it's something that's never gonna end. You know,
our crime rates kind of stabilizing right now, but it
seems like this sponto a way. I know, we're constantly
getting the texts I know from the toll violations, and
that one seems to be very prevalent right now. Even
though you know, when you notice when you get the
message from someone that's a very odd address that's coming from.
(01:04):
That should be like your first clue. But you know
they're mentioning sun Pass specifically. Some people you know very gullible,
so they link onto that. Or you have the ones
from the random texts and they asked you for working
from home, or a lot of times he's turned into
you accepting a check from someone to the positive and
then you find out it's a fake check. And it's
(01:27):
a myriad of scams going on right now, but a
lot of them going through texts.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, that is they are. Remember back in the day
it used to be emails and you'd get the almost
at Norwegian, the Nigerian prints.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, everyone knew about that one. We had one recently.
Someone got a text or a message from WhatsApp and
claiming they were the US Marshal. They had a warrant
for the person's arrest. You know, they end up doing
a video call. The person had the US Marshall's logo
behind them. The person the victim ends up sending, ends
(02:05):
up going to ATM. A couple of ATMs gets about
fifteen thousand dollars out, positives the money to a Bitcoin
account and ends up losing losing all the money on
that one. But it just it starts as a what's
up call? They're they're you know, duped into believing they
have a warrant and the uh, I don't know why
unless you you know, maybe you had done something wrong
(02:27):
you're worried about, but you know, you never dine anything wrong.
You shouldn't worried about, you know, having to pay a warrant.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And yeah, and there's one Martin County Sheriff's warning about
is it is it? I guess there's a nuance to
that with the big coins. And they're saying it's happening
in Palm Beach too. Uh. And they're saying, you know,
it's it is the warrant situation, and it's similar to
the jury jury duty you know, uh situation. What is that?
(02:59):
Is that happening to you? Sometimes they'll give some of
these things. They'll call and they'll give names. They'll say,
I'm deputy or I'm officers such and such. Has that
ever happened with regards.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
That, Oh, that happens not a lot. But we have
gotten calls from the victim to say, Hey, I'm just
checking the do you have this you know? Or I
was called by this sergeant and officer and we'll verify
that it's not them. That's that's happened a few times.
And the reason they're using bitcoin, you know, because it's
just not a traceful transaction. So once it's also like
(03:32):
when you get the gift cards, you go to Walgreens
or CVS or targeting by those gift cards and you
give them the numbers to the gift cards and the
money goes and there's no real tracing of the of
the funds.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And with this latest one, I guess they're also pushing
for gold bars in addition to I didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
See that recently.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I haven't.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We haven't had anything like that, but I have seen
that one.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But my question about the bitcoins is, you know, oftentimes
we hear about these scams targeting the I'm fifty five,
I'm not elderly. I don't have the first clue about
how to deal with bitcoin. I mean, are they are
they targeting the elderly with the bitcoin situation? The gift
cards I understand, but maybe they maybe they're going to
bitcoin now because like you said, it's untraceable and the
(04:17):
gift cards. Now people are getting wise to would be victims,
you know, because you walk into CVS or Walgreens and
first thing, even public's first thing you see by the
by the gift cards is don't you know, don't fall
for a scam kind of situation. But I mean, yeah,
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
No, yeah, that's true. I mean the gift cards. Even
though they put the signs up in the you know,
the different stores, people still still fall victim to that.
We had one, I think we had one where it
was an elderly person was targeted and they ended up
going to pick them up. They sent a driver to
pick them up at their residents to drive them to
(04:54):
a bank to the positive funds and they end up
having to pay for the uber driver that took them
to the uh the bank.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, I think you had told us about that last time.
All right, So the the biggest advice is is, you know,
I guess you know, police aren't going to reach out
about a warrant, right if you're if somebody has a
warrant out, you're just going to get arrested.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, yeah, you're gonna get arrested. We're not gonna call
and we're not gonna we're not going to ask if
you gift cards or bit coins or any of that stuff.
You know, just just watch for you know, you get
this call from the Security Department or I R S
demanding money, or you have the Liverpool package or any
random message, just really stop and think about it. And
(05:38):
what we do is we tell the elderly is you know,
do you think it might be a scanner? You a question,
Call call loved one or call you know, call us
and we'll decipher the message for you.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Uh. Let's talk about illegal immigration, and I know it's
it can be an uncomfortable, uh topic for law enforcement
because obviously you're in the middle of you know, with
the Trump administration and it's you know, demands at this
point from the federal level, and you have ICE, Immigrations
and Customs enforcement out and about, and I know we
(06:11):
have had them in our area and our communities. So
what is you know, what is your side of what
what is it your officers are supposed to do or
not supposed to do?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Right now, nothing's really changed for us at this point
because I know they want to create a task force
for officers all over the country to become certified as
as an ICE agency, so to say, we've done this
years before. With other federal departments where we've been almost
deputized as being a acting on behalf of that federal
(06:46):
agency like Customs whatever, do work, but it still has
to be coordinated through that agency. But until that happens,
we're still following the same protocol we have. If we
have someone that we suspect of being here legally, will
contact ICE and they'll have to respond. We can't really
legally hold on to someone based on like it's a
(07:08):
civil warrant. Really it's not a criminal warrant at this point.
So unless something's criminal, or we arrest somebody for something
that's criminal and they also are here illegally, then we
can you know, when we go to county jail we
put a detainer on well, they'll put a detainer on
them based on that. But right now it's basically just
encounter the person, contact ICE. If we have someone a
border patrol and they they'll respond. But until we you
(07:33):
train or certified that we can do it, that's kind
of where the ball sitting right now.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Well, and you don't and correct me if' wrong. You
don't have officers actively going out looking for people that
might be here illegally, right, they're just looking for people
breaking out actual laws of you know that somebody would
break here.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yes, we're we're not actively looking at for anyone like that.
We are we're looking for criminals. We're looking for the
regular criminals. But if you know, it's as if someone
here is a criminal and they're illegal, then you know
we can take action. But right now there's some laws
that have come to the state to empower us to
do that. But I know there's some they're fighting in
(08:13):
federal court right now. There's I think a judge blocked
one one of the orders that deals with empowering local
law enforcement. I think there's another one that passed the
law that allows for detention at county jails, but right
now it's being tested to the court system.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And and so I mean essentially in the message that
we've gotten. We've spoken with Sheriff Bradshaw on each county
sheriff multiple times on this situation, and you know, his
his word is that you know, he's not Ice. Ice
is in charge of all of this. If he gets
if if one of his deputies picks up somebody for
a crime, not not regarding being in the country illegally,
(08:52):
but a crime theft, violence whatnot, and ICE contacts them,
they will hold on to that person for ICE. Is
it's essentially the same thing.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, exactly, that's exactly it. If we encounter someone who's
we're already investigating for criminal violation or investigation and we
found that they're here legally, that's that's something we've always done.
That's something we do when I was on the road
many years ago. But until this law plays out in
the in the courts and you know, being appealed and
(09:29):
things like that, we're kind of in a state of limbo,
or until they train the law enforcement in Florida through
the federal agencies to empower us. But that still hasn't
happened yet.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So what exactly, if A is your understanding of the
law that's being challenged in the courts.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I know there was a federal judges is blocked that
I think out of Miami over the fact that local
law enforcement can be empowered through state statute to enforce
immigration laws. And I think the question is can you
empower local law enforcement act on a for a federal
level like that.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So that's being challenged by by you know, the side
that doesn't doesn't want law enforcement involved in local law
enforcement involved in immigration issues.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I don't know who brought it forth, but someone brought
probably a fourth to suit to appeal it in court,
and I guess it's at one level. Now we're judged
to say whether a kind of state allow us to
do that. So, you know, we you know, we wait
to see how this all plays out in the courts,
you know, because no one wants to get sued for
taking any action that you know, we don't want to
violate anyone's civil rights either until we have full you know,
(10:45):
empowerment by either state stature or a federal federal law,
or through empowering us through the FEDS to enact or
take take action on these incidents.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So the tensions are up over the illegal immigrats situation
for people on both sides of the issue. I don't
know anybody that's you know, that's for illegal immigration, but
you know, some people unhappy with the way the Trump
administration's carrying things out. Some people unhappy over Doge and
(11:17):
what they're doing, and uh they've been taking it out
on the Tesla dealers and uh individual tesla's And I
understand there was a situation involving your your department has
a Tesla as one of its cruisers. Is that the case?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
No, no, no, it was a it was a call
we handled.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Oh it wasn't the department, It was somebody's.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah we didn't. We thought about buying Tesla's years ago.
But they're a little too tight inside there for as
a police vehicle.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Kind of pricey too, right, I mean, how would you?
How would you? Especially we're talking about the cyber trucks,
this Tesla cyber truck, I should have mentioned. I don't
know the price of them, but I'm guessing, based on
the fact that they're a Tesla, uh, that they were
kind of pricey. I could imagine, you know, being telling taxpayers, yeah,
we're going to buy a bunch of these. Well might
(12:06):
you might have some uproar over it.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
It was a few years ago that agencies were buying
the smaller I figured which model they were using as
police vehicles, and there was a push for a little while.
I don't know if they still are. I know a
lot of agencies are looking at electric vehicles still limitation.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Of their use though, so so with the cyber truck.
This is a resident of Palm Springs and somebody vandalized it.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, they were at a business. They parked a cyber
truck in front of the Tesla truck in front of
a business, and while they were inside, someone came out
and spray painted it a black mark across it. Nothing,
just a line. And then you know, they checked the
cameras that you know, they end up tracing the person
back because they're full of cameras. I don't know why
anyone would, you know, committed vandalism knowing that they're going
(12:56):
to be film throughout it. But you know this this
person did it. We end up trade sent it back
to the person and it was an elderly man, probably
in the seventies that we questioned. Me just said, hey,
you know, I've seen everyone else doing this. You know,
I thought, you know, I would do it too. So
is he but he apologized afterwards.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Well he apologized, but he still committed a crime. Is
he facing a charge?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yes? Yeah, I think I'm trying to think if I
think the victim, I'm not sure if they want to prosecute,
but yeah, they he's still facing a charge for that.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
What would that be it just vandalism or what would be.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, criminal mischief, vandalism yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Wow, a little misguided, huh.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Not worth it. I know people with the tensions of
high right now, everyone is really on edge, and you know,
it's everyone needs to take a breath out there on
both sides and just you know, kind of.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, get I get so right.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I could tell people don't get round of it, but
they you know, it's it's unfortunately these days it's on
both sides. It's getting very very heated.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Construction update. I know you're you're is it refreshment memory?
Are you having the entire station rebuilt or is it
just a it's an expansion now now I remember, right, yes, is.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
The expansion In fact that I wasn't sure if you
could hear the noise out there, but you said you couldn't.
But they're actively working right now demolishing offices. We're adding
another building onto our building and it's going to be
connected in the front. But we're doubling the size of
the PD. We've unfortunately with a lot of government buildings,
you know, based on limited funding, when you build them,
(14:28):
they pretty much outsize them very quickly. So within a
few years we outsize this one. And now we're doubling
the size of the agency. It's a two story structure
in front of it, and we're having One of the
nice things we're going to have is adding a community
training room, which is going to be right off a lobby,
so we can have community events here. We can have
community meetings with the public, Soviet opportunity for the community
(14:50):
to come in and meet with us in a much
nicer environment here, and a well, you know, suited facility.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
When what is the ETA on this, they're.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Saying before Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
You don't sound confident.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
No, no, I'm telling you. It's going off faster than
I thought. And the shell is almost complete. They're going
to put the roof on probably in two to three weeks,
and then they'll start finishing up the inside, which should
take some time. But we're also renovating interior the PD
now of our existing building. So that's why I've asst
(15:26):
this office is getting demolished.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Right now so once and you may not have this
info on hand, I apologize if you don't. But how
many thousands of square feet once they're done, will will
will encompass the Palm Springs PD well.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Right now, the existing building is fourteen thousand square feet
and this two story structure will be another fourteen thousands,
or essentially doubling the size of the agency.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
So twenty eight thousand square feet. Yes, all right.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
The other thing, the other thing I wanted to talk about,
I forgot one of the issues we're having right now.
I was with bicycle thefts, especially like e bikes. It's,
you know, just as a message out to everyone, please
lock your e bike up. I know a lot of
people go to like stores and they'll just sleep them
out front on you know, secured, and we're beginning a
lot of those stones. So if you can put the
(16:19):
message out please, if even if from there in a
few minutes, make lock it up, chain it up, do something.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
How many of these how many thefts have you had
within the past few weeks, I'd.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Say a couple of week, okay. And they're not cheap.
And they're not cheap, you know, because e bikes are
even though there's some bicycles out there get very expensive.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
But it's fairly new technology for folks that don't understand.
It's they're electronic bikes, so their bicycles, but they actually
have little motors. I'm like, not really motors are there.
I guess when you think of motors. You think of
something that takes but it is. They're electrical motors. They
do they not have a key or something? I mean,
if you just left it there, can somebody just will
it move? Do you need a key or how did
(16:59):
they operate? I've never never tried one.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
It depends on the bike. I can tell you my
my daughter's up at college right now and she has
one of those scooters and that's been stolen off her twice.
And she's even locked it up. She chained it up
and you know, I gave her a good chain, but
sometimes it's not locked as well as it should be.
But she's lost that or has it has had it
stolen twice. But that's a common occurrence of collegist too. Wow,
(17:25):
she with her what's that?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
She said, the same one stolen and returned. Ords you've
gotten she got another one and then ed got stolen.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Well, it's funny because the first time it was stolen,
she calls me in the middle of the night and says,
you know, my scooter got stolen. And I said, well,
did you call the police? And she goes, what are
they going to do?
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Did you call the police? She said, I'm doing that right, now.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
What do you think I'm doing? So I said, did
you call the police? She goes, what are they gonna do?
I said, well, maybe they could track it based on
the Apple air tag I put in it, and she goes,
oh yeah. So then she ends up finding the next
morning abandoned and then get to stolen again and find
it the next morning abandoned. But based on an air attack,
she was able to find it. And you know, I
told her, maybe Dad's not as dumb as you think
(18:11):
he is.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Oh, what do you think to somebody? I know it's
just kind of conjecture, but is somebody is it a prank?
You think if somebody's just taken it and kind of
abandoning it, is that.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
I think the first time, you know in college is
there's a million scooters and bikes, and I know there's
a common occurrence gets so stolen. Sometimes somebody needs a
ride and they grab it. I think the second time
they wanted to keep it because you could see they
damaged where they thought they were going after the GPS
device but they couldn't find it.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I think that time they were going to try to
start to keep it. But the first time I think
it was just to go from one place to another.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Wow, all right, and then one more coffee with a
cop coming up May twelfth, This is a Monday. Tell
me about first of all, tell me about this event
and tell me what the what is the goal of
these events?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
We do these on a frequent basis. We go to
local coffee shops. This one's going to be in a Starbucks.
But you know, we put over our banners about what
we do. We have officers that we have some giveaways.
It's basically an opportunity for the public to come out
and meet us, talk in a more friendly environment, discuss
whatever they want to discuss. And it's really it's a
(19:27):
good opportunity just for the public to to talk to
an officer and you know, a good environment or friendly environment.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So how does it work? Am I? Am I paying
full freak for a couple of Starbucks?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, you still got to pay, but you know the
bonuses you get to talk to an officer.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Well, that's always that's always good. God forbid, there's a
hold up while you're there, and somebody's dumb enough to
do that when they see a bunch of people in
the uniforms.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Uh yeah, no, that would be that would be a
very not smart thing to do.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
You have a lot of protection there are. Yeah. So
this is Starbucks where.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
It's the one on Forest Yll Boulevard out by Military
trail right on Forest Hill. It's just the eastern Military.
It's forty three eighty Forest Hill. It'll be on May twelfth,
between round nine to eleven, we'll be there.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
That must be just inside your jurisdiction, right, because I'm
guessing west of Military is no longer or am I wrong?
It's no longer Palm Springs. No, you're right.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
We military is our western border. Our eastern border is
probably a little bit like Florida Mango. They right around
Florida Mango. It kind of juts in and out. But
those are our north, west and east borders, all.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Right, nine to eleven Monday, May twelfth. Coffee with the cops, Starbucks,
Forest Hill and Military. Anything else for we wrap up.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I think that's it all right.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Well, I do appreciate always you taking the time and
speaking with us here and getting this important information out
to our listeners. And whether or not you're a resident
of Palm Springs, always good to hear from you. Tom Checkarelli,
Police Chief Village of Palm Springs here for protecting the
palm beaches.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Thanks a lotch good talking to you.
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