Force also trained on handgun conversions
By Steve Plunkett
Gulf Stream’s police force is eagerly waiting for free software and hardware to arrive to check for security weaknesses at the Gulf Stream School.
Police Chief Richard Jones applied for the school safety grant from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and “it appears, based on the grant award, that we were the first agency in Florida to be awarded the grant.”
Officer Vincentina Nowicki was handed the new assignment and has already been trained to conduct security risk assessments and use the new computerized program.
The state money, Jones said, will also let his department build an operational plan “that is relevant to how the school would respond in a critical incident in conjunction with the Police Department.”
Mayor Scott Morgan was happy to hear of the grant, whose amount was not released. “Good job, Chief. I think the school and particularly the parents will be very pleased to hear that,” he said.
Jones had already advised Head of School Gray Smith that the security grant money was on the way.
“We are going to talk more about how we work together to continue making it a safer and better environment for our students as well as the community,” Jones said.
FBI offers tips
The grant is another step in a growing partnership between the Gulf Stream School and the Police Department.
In mid-July the school gave Jones meeting space for an FBI specialist to give officers from the town, Ocean Ridge and five more agencies tips on how to recognize handguns that had been converted to much deadlier automatic weapons.
Jones had learned about the alterations weeks before as one of 70 law enforcement officers invited to an FBI-hosted conference “to see things that we might not be aware of.” He was shocked to learn that bad guys can buy a 3D printer online, download plans from the internet and make a pistol that will last for a few shots.
What’s worse, they can use the same process to manufacture a small, snap-in part that turns a revolver into an automatic weapon. Just possessing that part is a federal crime, Jones said. Hence the need for local officers to be able to recognize the part when they make a traffic stop.
This year has seen a number of gun seizures in Gulf Stream, with four unsecured weapons confiscated from vehicles on State Road A1A in the three-month span from April 8 to July 3. The guns were observed “in plain view” on a center console and a passenger-side floorboard, as well as under the driver seat and in a satchel in the backseat.
Ocean Ridge Police Chief Scott McClure, who sent six officers to the ATF seminar, called the existence of 3D-converted automatic handguns “very scary.” His department seized three unconverted weapons in 2024, two last year and six in 2022.
Other attendees were from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Atlantic University police, Atlantis, Palm Beach Gardens and Lake Clarke Shores.
Police captain promoted
Gulf Stream Police Capt. John Haseley, who joined the department in 1992, was promoted to deputy chief as of Oct. 1, swapping the two gold bars on his shirt collar for two gold stars. His badge has been updated to show the new rank.
His salary was not changed because of the promotion, but he received the same 4% cost-of-living-adjustment as other officers. Haseley now makes $150,780 a year, while Chief Jones receives $152,100.
Rank-and-file officers were given a $4,000 salary bump in addition to the COLA.
Comments